The worst case scenario
by sekkii
Summary: Baal, A stolen DNA sample ! SG1 follow a Tok'ra lead to attempt to retrieve what was stolen from their leader. Sounds like a recipe for a worst case scenario. AU Chapter 13 up ! The truth will out.
1. Default Chapter

Chapter one

Somewhere in the distance a phone was ringing. There was also a man hammering.

"O'Neill? O'Neill?"

The man hammering was Teal'c?

"O'Neill? If you do not respond I will be compelled to open the door."

That did it. He returned to reality with a bang, lifted his head off the desk and moved quickly to yank the door open just in time to prevent Teal'c shouldering it down.

"Sorry T, must have dropped off there. Hey what's up?" He looked past his tall Jaffa friend to Sergeant Davis who was looking at him strangely.

"Yes?" Jack looked between the two,with the beginings of impatience. It is always better to let sleeping Generals lie.

"Phone call for you General …"

"Ah yes" It was still ringing..He strode back into his office and snatched up the receiver.

"O'Neill."

From the door Teal'c watched his friend's face as he talked on the phone.

"Hey Cass." A smile broke over his tired features, swiftly followed by a frown

"Is she ok?"

"She what?" Slowly his mouth became a grim line as he listened, nodding every now and again.

"How much beer?" His brown eyes were now dangerously dark.

"For cryin out loud!" He raked his hand through his greying hair.

"Just keep her talking til I get there and I will handle it," A pause.. ."I don't know. I'm sure you'll think of something."

Teal'c decided to stay; simultaneously Walter Davis decided to leave. He had witnessed this particular facial expression before and knew it usually resulted in an angry General. And this particular General was not nice when he was angry. He mentally sounded the retreat and steered 2 other guys out of the potential blast zone." Lets not bother General O'Neill whilst he is on the phone, he hates to be interrupted."

Teal'c was impassive. He also could see the telltale signs of Jack's growing temper but he had seen them before and he knew it would blow over eventually. He watched as the receiver was replaced with a crash and his friend shrugged on his jacket before picking up his car keys. He stepped back from the door and followed him.

"Will you require my assistance in this matter O'Neill?"

"Yep," he strode towards the exit.

"Will we be leaving this facility to undertake our task, O'Neill?"

"Yep," He strode on purposefully.

"Then may I suggest you inform Sergeant Davis of our departure whilst I return to my quarters for a suitable outer garment and my headwear." Jack halted and strode in the other direction.

" Meet ya topside." He disappeared around the corner.

"Indeed." He inclinded his head mildly at the retreating figure and turned towards his quarters.

* * *

They drove away from the complex into the night. He looked at the luminous clock in his truck; worry etched his features, 22.30. It wasn't like her to worry him like this. Hell, she knew he worried.What sort of state had she got herself into? More importantly why?

He turned off the freeway and drove on in silence.

* * *

Cassandra Fraiser looked anxiously towards her door, and tried to focus on the conversation again.

She looked into cornflower blue eyes, as her companion chattered on more and more animatedly. Guilt washed over her. This was gonna be ugly. She shook herself mentally, all she had to do was keep her here until he arrived. Those were her orders, she would not fail. She was aware of how much he cared. She looked towards the door again and saw lights draw up in front.

Her blonde hair bounced on shaking shoulders as she laughed again.She tried to stop and couldn't, everything just seemed so funny. Vaguely she became aware that Cassandra was looking towards the door. She bit her bottom lip.

"You didn't?" she asked with a note of alarm.

"Err what?"

A truck door banged.

The blue eyes narrowed." Cass, did you call someone?"

Footsteps. Cassandra moved towards the door. The General's silhouette loomed in the doorway.

"Crap!" She vaulted over the sofa and made for the rear of the house.

The door opened. "Where is she?"His eyes raked the room and came up empty.

"She was right there, she can't have got far!"Cassandra said, pointingtowards the sofa.

A flash of gold in his peripheral vision caught his attention.

He moved towards the kitchen.

She had seen him in the doorway and couldn't fight the mounting panic. She couldn't face him; she couldn't let him see her like this. She had to get away, at least till he calmed down and she felt more in control.

She yanked open the back door and collided with a solid object.

"Oof!" She landed flat on her back, winded.

"Are you injured?" Teal'c inquired anxiously.

She giggled.

He raised an eyebrow and looked through the living room door.

"It would seem your assumption on her choice of escape route was correct, O'Neill."Teal'c nodded his head slightly towards his friend who was striding across the kitchen. Barely concealed fury radiated from him.

He glared down at the giggling mass sprawled on the wood floor.

"Hannah Danielle O'Neill! What part of **no** you may not attend a party tonight did you fail to understand? " he barked impatiently.

"She appears to have consumed . ."

"I **know** ."

He reached down and pulled her up to face him. Well, not quite face,as she looked at her runner clad feet and chose this highly appropriate moment to blush.

"I," she began.

"Ah!" he held up a hand.

"But."

"Ah!" He held his finger up to his lips.

She subsided, mutinously.

He pointed at the door. "Truck! Now!"

She walked out, shoulders drooping.

He watched her carefully as she walked towards the door. Shewas so like her mother, quick witted, intelligent, he thought, but he knew the charecteristics she had inherited from him made her an O'Neill and she always had to have the last word.

She drew level with Cassandra, who had watched the whole exchange with an amused expression.

"Shol'va!"

"Excuse me? You will apologise to Cassie** _right_** now, Hannah." Jacktook two steps towards his child

"Sorry," she mumbled over her shoulder.

"Louder!" His next step wouldbring herwithin his reach.

"Sorry," she said very sarcastically as she exited at a accelerated pace.

"Jack, its ok." Cassie watched her walk none to steadily down the path.

"I will accompany her. O'Neill." The big Jaffa strode past with what could only be described as an amused expression on his face.

"Cass, I can only…" Jack looked uncomfortably at the young woman before him and smiled wryly.

"No need," she interrupted and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Anything else you need to tell me?" He hoped there wasn't but he knew he ought to ask.

"You were young once too," she ventured.

He sighed heavily, "Sam is going to kill me!"


	2. chapter 2

**Title: The worst-case scenario**

Summary: The worst –case scenario the Tok'ra operative had said. SJ

Disclaimer: oops forgot this on the first one …. Don't own diddly and not getting paid. Always a pleasure never a chore!

**A/N **Thanks for the reviews. This is my first fic so be gentle. Also much thanks to Floopygirl who is a champion Beta ! (if you need a great laugh catch her jello-wrestling fic! )

This part of the tale is set season 15ish so Tee Hee to all who were fooled and onward!

**Chapter 2**

She sat white faced in the back of her father's truck. It had been a long time since she had seen him that angry. What was his problem anyway? Actually, she knew exactly what his problem was, she had defied him. He wasn't used to it. Well, he could just get used to it! Like that was going to happen! General Jonathan O'Neill was not going to tolerate disobedience from her or anyone else in his command. She could have talked him round if it hadn't been for that parting shot; maybe she still could, but then again maybe not. Mentally she braced herself, she knew she was going to be in a whole lot of trouble now.

A shadow passed across the truck window and the door opened. Teal'c slid in beside her.

"I do not think you chose such a grave insult intentionally Hannah O'Neill."

"Oh!" her hand flew to her mouth, she turned "Uncle T I'm so sorry I didn't mean to …I just thought it was funny.. you know traitor . . Like? "

"I have heard much inappropriate humour in my time with the Tau'ri." He inclined his head towards her slightly and the trace of a smile hovered on his face.

She giggled again

"You still appear to be suffering the effects of your alcohol consumption .I suggest you take this moment to compose yourself before the General returns to drive this vehicle."

This time gales of laughter erupted from her. She held her sides and tears rolled down her face.

"Does he _generally _drive this _vehicle?" _Ha ha ha. "Da da da daaa I'm composing myself."

Jack wrenched open the drivers door and was met by the sound of his only child's hysterical laughter. "Oh for cryin out loud T whatcha say?" He rolled his eyes.

"It appears the content of what I say is entirely irrelevant O'Neill!"

He turned and gave her a stern; reduce raw recruits to jello look. She subsided, as he knew she would. Mutinously.

They drove away in silence.

Sounds of deep breathing came from the backseat. The General looked in the rear-view mirror; his daughter was leaning against the tall Jaffa's side. Although she was tall for a girl of her age, her head only reached his chest. Her blonde hair trailed across her beautiful face and in the pale moonlight her skin appeared like alabaster.

His friend was the first to speak. "Hannah O'Neill is asleep."

"Great." He sighed heavily and tried to keep his mind on driving the truck. How was he going to explain this one to Sam? He had promised his wife he would keep a close eye on their child, not eat junk, feed the dog, yadda yadda. Jack couldn't recall the other items on the list but knew it must have included not entering her lab, even if it was on fire that was a given. He had managed a whole 3 days and then Cassandra had called by and discovered his teenage daughter, dead drunk! This was not going to look good! He sighed again and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"You are not to blame for this incident O'Neill. As the Nox would say the very young,"

"Do not always do as they are told, I know T, I know." He chuckled. How did he always know what he was thinking? It was uncanny; Daniel did it too but much less subtly than his Jaffa friend. Well Teal'c was one hundred and ten years of age after all. Furthermore they had spent a ridiculous amount of time locked up in one another's company in one Goa'uld holding cell or another over the years. Jack smirked in the darkness; he could hardly fail to know him, really.

"Are we returning to your home, my friend?" Teal'c enquired

"Nah, I've got some work to do, Hannah can sleep it off in my quarters and the Doc can check her out in the morning." Or at any time he wasn't happy with how she looked, he thought.

He drew up into his space in the Cheyenne Mountain complex. He opened the rear door and lifted her tenderly into his arms. "Can you get the door Teal'c?"

"Indeed."

They entered past the security checkpoints. The sentries saluted him and smiled tolerantly when they saw the sleeping girl. Hannah was a great favourite here; no other kids were allowed in for lack of security clearance. Her many aunts and uncles spoiled her dreadfully; - often, he was sure, just to spite him. Teal'c was the worst by far. She would always hold a special place in his heart.

Twenty-eight levels down they exited the second lift in the S.G.C. Hannah stirred slightly as they walked down the corridor. After Teal'c had bid him goodnight, Jack headed for his quarters and laid her on the bed gently. He rolled her on her side and he tucked the blankets around her like he had when she had been small. The General sat down heavily in the chair beside the bed and began his vigil.

He rubbed his hands across his eyes and gazed on her features, which were softened by sleep. He could see her mother in her face and when he looked closer he could see Charlie there too. She was his gift, he had never expected a second chance at fatherhood, but she was it. He had savoured every moment; he loved her so much it hurt. "The worst-case scenario" as the Tokra operative had put it.

Jack smirked. Worst case for the school principal too. He laughed quietly to himself. She was a heady cocktail of her mother's brilliance and beauty and his irreverence, sarcasm, and razor sharp judgement. The result a complete handful, and that was without taking into account all that she had endured. His hands balled into white-knuckle fists. No one would ever hurt her again. His daddy's girl, their daughter. His and Sam's.

They would talk in the morning. There would be consequences. A pact would be made. Mom's wrath avoided.

Daniel appeared in the doorway, "Everything ok Jack?"

He rose and walked over, a hand raking tiredly through his hair. "Yeah, just one those teenage moments. Guess we've done well to get her to fifteen without one," he paused, and then grinned. "Well without seeing one."

Daniel smirked, "chip off the old block eh? You'll have to watch that she doesn't enlist!"

He held up his hand, "Don't just don't" The General grinned; it had been a subject of great amusement around the base that his daughter had joined the local cadet group and was excelling. This despite enrolling under the pseudonym "Hannah Murray", so, she had explained no one would judge her on her military background. He hadn't wanted to ask Teal'c if he had aided her, but Jack had seen a small look of satisfaction on his face when the rouse had been exposed.

His friend shuffled his feet, "Teal'c said you had a heap of paperwork to do er. I could sit here if you like?"

"Erm . . ." he looked uncertainly over his shoulder to his sleeping child.

He relented, Daniel loved her like his own, and he was family.

He had just decided to call it a night. Jack yawned widely and stretched in the elevator, looking at his watch as the doors opened.01.00 hours.

A girl's piercing screams rent the air, echoing through the halls of the quiet base. He ran into Daniel at the door of his quarters.

"What happened, Daniel?" Jack's voice was strained from lack of sleep and rising panic. He moved through the doorway, into the room.

"I don't know." The archaeologist was bewildered.

She was standing back against the rear wall of the room, looking wildly around, but she didn't appear to see him.

He stepped towards her."Noooo!" she screamed as she put up her hands to shield her face; she seemed frightened witless.

He halted mid stride, "Hannah?" It pained him to see her so afraid of him.

She began to scream, a torrent of words streamed out.

"Er, Jack she is speaking Goa'uld dialect," Daniel said, a note of surprise tinged his voice.

"Oh crap!" The General dashed forward to catch her as her eyes rolled back in her head and she crumpled to the floor.

He cradled her limp body in his arms pulling her tearstained face towards his shoulder. Jack was oblivious to everything but his child as he whispered comfort into her ear.

Daniel reached quickly for the phone on the wall.

"Medical team to the General's quarters, stat!"


	3. chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. No copyright infringement intended and I won't get any money .sadly 

A/N: Thank you very much to the generous reviewers! Feedback very welcome in fact nearly essential. Thanks again to The Floopster for her patience and excellent grammatical skills!  
Spoilers: loads random and up to season 8

chapter 3

Daniel touched two fingers to the corner of his mouth and winced.

On the way to the Infirmary Hannah had awakened and had lashed out in her fear. Leaping off the gurney, her fist had connected with surprising speed with Daniel's face, and with her father's too, if the darkening bruise on his cheekbone was anything to go by.

Teal'c, whose kel'no'reem had been disturbed by the shouts and the pounding of boot-clad feet, had joined them. Together, they had wrestled the General's terrified daughter down as carefully as they could. In her frenzy to escape all of them had sustained minor injuries. The Doctor had sedated her heavily, so that she now lay unconscious, and restrained "for her own safety" in an isolation room.

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The Doctor looked up grimly from his notes. "General O'Neill, your daughter appears to have suffered a psychotic episode." The experienced medic hesitated, he had dealt with a great many servicemen over his long career, but this General was quite frankly a tricky customer. Well, he thought, best just to say it and suffer the consequences." It is a highly unusual occurrence in a person of her age, we normally only see this as part of posttraumatic stress disorder. I have seen the condition at first hand in personnel who have had traumatic battle experiences, and amongst prisoners of war." He let the words hang in the air uncertainly, aware of how it sounded.

Jack leaned his elbows on his knees and put his head in his hands. The Doctor inhaled to carefully begin again, but the General cut him off," You wouldn't have read her file. It was classified in ol Doc Frasier's day." He broke off anguished and continued to stare at the patch of grey stone floor between his feet.

Daniel attempted to continue "Hannah had an, er, _interesting_ arrival at the S.G.C."

"Get him the file, someone," Jack whispered in a strangled voice.

Daniel continued, "I guess Janet expected something like this initially. She always said Hannah had recovered too quickly, but after ten years no one seriously thought it was an issue anymore."

"The File, anyone!" the general growled in a low voice.

Davis, who had appeared in the doorway, took in the scene with one glance and bustled away to do the General's bidding.

Daniel waited for a second before he continued, "Jack, you need to contact Sam"

"Jack," he repeated urgently.

A hissed intake of breath," I can't."

Daniel scowled, "you mean, you won't?"

Jack raised himself slowly, looked up at Daniel and narrowed his eyes. "No, Daniel." He pronounced the younger man's name deliberately. "I mean; she is off-world with Jacob and his Tok'ra buddies on some secret mission to an unknown planet, with no gate - it can only be approached by ship, I mean, I _Can't_!"

Daniel flushed slightly, and looked at the floor as Jack's voice softened again.

"Anyway, her mission is due back in two days time and Jacob knows I don't like to be kept waiting!"

"Could we secure the assistance of the Asgard or the Tok'ra, O'Neill?" Teal'c suggested.

"No I don't think so," his friend replied.

The Doctor ventured, "I could recommend Dr Mackenzie?"

"No! _Not now, not no how, not ever_!" yelled the General, turning to face them, eyes blazing.

The Doctor flinched and quietly left as Daniel put his hand on the furious man's shoulder.

"Jack, it won't happen."

"Over my dead and rotting corpse." Jack breathed heavily, chest heaving, discomfited by this rare show of emotion.

Daniel sighed; he knew it was going to take a while for his friend to get a handle on his fear. Always strangely calm in every life and death situation they had faced, Jack's emotional Achilles heel was his wife and child, and Daniel knew it would take a supreme effort, for his friend, to regain his control.

Minutes went by with only the sound of the beeping monitors and his friend's ragged breathing disturbing the silence. Daniel wanted to say something, to soothe Jack's nerves and to buy him time to calm down. Eventually he began.

"She was one of the only memories I retained after my ascension." The younger man grinned involuntarily, memories flooding his mind. He pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Jack? Do you remember how she used to follow T round the base copying him, when she was small? That first time she smiled, you said it was like a million lights going on." He chuckled quietly.

"What about the first time she said "Crap" . . .you chased her round 3 corridors and she thought you were going to be so mad, but when you caught her you just tickled her until she screamed."

The very corners of the tall Jaffa's mouth quirked upwards, "Indeed, you had to move at an accelerated pace to catch her!" he declared.

O'Neill listened to his friends talking and slowly the picture of her restraints and the small white hands in them receeded and a smaller thinner Hannah came into view. He remembered every time she had raised her eyebrow and said 'indeed' like her Jaffa mentor, and he grimaced when he remembered the threats he had had to make to get her to talk and the heartbreaking joy of hearing her call him daddy the first unexpected time.

And then images he had struggled these long years to forget returned . . . . .


	4. Chapter 4

**Spoilers:** Random spoilers to season 8 

**Disclaimer :** I don't own anything and I ain't getting paid . (Stifled sob!)

**Rating** : Teens

A/N : Thank you once again for the reviews . So sorry this hasn't been so quick but I've been moving house and had no Internet access! 

Also I am urgently looking for a couple of people to beta read for me, any volunteers email me ,my address is in my profile. Thanks

I don't generally like to add a lot of explanatory notes. I prefer to credit the reader with a modicum of intelligence and sometimes allow a smidgen of confusion to creep in. There are always clues and you will spot plot markers as the story progresses. So brains in gear …. This is a flashback ! Spot the personnel change for a game of guess the correct season!

Chapter 4

_Some years earlier…_

The insistent ringing of the telephone awakened him. A muscular arm snaked out from under the pillow, grabbing the bulky receiver.

"O'Neill," stated the muffled voice, " No, Jonas,_ I wasn't,_ but I am now." Thrusting the scratchy blankets aside, the now irritable Colonel sat up. He ruffled his short, greying hair and looked at his watch, then frowned and checked it again.

"It's only 05.30," he said in a thoroughly bemused tone. He sighed and lay down again heavily on the hard military bed, still listening to the man on the other end of the phone. "Green," he said ominously and replaced the receiver.

Jack threw his arm over his eyes and turned over. His alarm would go off in thirty-five minutes, but that was still another thirty-five minutes left to sleep in. He attempted to doze off again.

A full ten minutes later, still trying to shut out the noises of the now awakening base, his keen ears discerned the tread of familiar footsteps, pausing outside his door, as though listening for signs of movement. He waited until his 2IC was poised ready to knock and shouted, "Go Away, Carter I'm sleeping!"

Jack listened for the tiny squeak of surprise she always gave when he made her jump. He grinned in the darkness, picturing her expression as a smile spread across her face. He loved to make her laugh.

"Er, Sir, sorry to bother you, but er," the major spoke in her best military tone. Someone was evidently walking by.

"Green, Major," he barked the words out in a suitably commanding tone.

"Thank you Sir," she replied deferentially, and went away.

He groaned as he rose out of bed and decided to hit the showers early. It was evidently going to be a long day.

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After eating breakfast, with his team in the commissary, they made their way to the briefing room. At 10.00 that day they were due out on a routine mission. 'Off to baby sit Jonas and the Major while they collected soil samples and rocks,' he thought. Those were the kind of missions he hated the most, hours of standing about scanning the horizon. As he mounted the control room stairs, Jack sighed wistfully at the thought of past missions on dusty planets with Daniel excited by ruins and artefacts, but Daniel was gone and they all had to get used to it. With that melancholy thought in mind, he strode through the briefing room door.

General Hammond was standing at the head of the briefing room table, talking to Jacob Carter.

Inwardly the colonel groaned. He liked Sam's father, but the appearance of any of the Tok'ra always spelt trouble as far as he was concerned. Throughout his recent experiences, his feelings for them had grown from a healthy dislike to a bitter hatred of them. Jack painted a smile on his face and looked at his commander for reassurance.

"General, Jacob." The colonel said, nodding to each man.

"There's been a change of plans, Jack," Hammond replied answering the silent question his 2IC had asked.

"Doh," was all he could say as he sank into his regular chair at the briefing table. He rolled his eyes, he already had that old 'this isn't going to be good' feeling.

Across the table from him, Major Carter sat down next to her father

"How are you, Dad?" she enquired lightly after kissing him on the cheek.

"Good, Sammie, and you?" Jacob replied smiling.

Sam noticed the smile hadn't quite reached his eyes. She was about to ask again when, with a gentle cough from the General, the briefing began.

"Jacob has given me some disturbing information," their commander began. "It has come to the attention of the Tok'ra that the Goa'uld, Baal, has in his possession genetic material from Earth that he intends to use in some sort of experimentation."

"Does not _all_ the human genetic material in the galaxy come from Earth initially, Jacobcarter?" Teal'c enquired, inclining his head towards the Tok'ra.

"Therefore, how does this affect us?" Major Carter asked tentatively looking at her Father for a further explanation. She was beginning to get an uneasy feeling similar to the colonel's. Jacob's head dipped eyes glowing briefly before his face rose again.

"It concerns you all directly, because the origin of the genetic material was SG-1." Jacob spoke with a deeper voice than usual signifying Selmak was in control.

There was an uncomfortable silence, during which Sam's eyes flicked between the General, and the rest of the team. She noticed the colonel's face had drained to a pale grey and that he had a white-knuckled grip on the arms of his chair.

The Tok'ra spoke again. "The operative we have within Baal's facility had access to documents pertaining to a sample of genetic material. They stated that the."

"Well I guess we all know how they got it!" The colonel interrupted hotly. "Son of a "

"Colonel!" Hammond's tone demanded respect. The General waited until the younger man broke his eye contact and stared at the table.

From Jack's right Teal'c broke the silence, "I believe O'Neill may be correct, General Hammond. Baal had much opportunity to remove his genetic material whilst holding O'Neill prisoner."

"You're right Teal'c. He did have ample opportunity, but I am more concerned about what he intends to _do with_ it." The General looked around the table.

Jacob, who had resumed control, stated, "The Tok'ra high council concludes the Goa'uld could be developing a genetic weapon, specifically designed to target current earth physiology."

"Well, we already know of at least one world race which has developed an independent physiology within the generations that they were on a new planet," Jonas broke off and looked at Major Carter.

"Yes," she continued with growing excitement. "Janet has often found slight differences in the blood work of seemingly human indigenous populations. Therefore, any genetic-type weapon would have to be tied to specific DNA markers of any given human sub species."

"Carter," the colonel snapped, raising a finger.

"Sorry Sir." She flushed slightly." He would need our genetic material, must have had a golden opportunity." The major broke off, suddenly aware that she had been discussing what was still a raw experience for her superior in a fairly inappropriate fashion. She chewed her lip uncertainly, watching him from under her lowered lashes.

General Hammond looked between his officers. Jack's recovery after his torture by Baal and subsequent sarcophagus withdrawal had been slow. He had passed his psychiatric evaluations and completed his 'sessions' in record time. That the colonel still had issues wasn't in doubt, but with his notoriously closed nature, engineering a discussion of that nature was difficult. The General knew Jack would handle it and for the time being it would reside within the growing list of taboo subjects. Nevertheless, he needed to make a decision.

"Jacob has advised me that he would be willing to assist SG-b1 in a covert retrieval mission to the planet, and has the Tok'ra council's promise of a ship to aid us." He paused and then looked at his subordinate. "Colonel, I can send another team, it is up to you."

O'Neill straightened himself in his chair,"No Sir, the mission is ours."

"Indeed," said his Jaffa friend. A muscle ticked in his face. At the mere mention of Baal, the mission had become a 'Jaffa revenge thing'.

"Jacob, if you will." The General gestured to the Tok'ra that he could continue and he began to explain the Intel and show them schematics of the facility.

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Several representatives of the Tok'ra met the team as they emerged from the stargate, and swiftly guided them to the waiting cargo ship. They slipped silently across the open ground in front of the stone circle like spectres and merged quietly into the long grey shadows of the growing evening gloom.

One Tok'ra accompanied them on to the ship as the other guards melted into the night. The ship rose quietly and shot away from the dark moon's gravity, the gate's event horizon burst into action. After eradicating any signs of military activity, the remaining Tok'ra entered the stargate. When the wormhole disengaged, the surface of the planet was still and quiet as if no one had ever been there.

Onboard the team began to check and recheck their equipment. The Tok'ra operative guided the ship out of the moon's orbit and activated the hyperdrive engines. With a mild jolt, the tel'tac moved across the galaxy at many times light speed.

Jacob spoke quietly to the team. "Once we exit hyperspace we will activate the ships cloaking device and then we will assess whether there are any other ships in orbit."

"I thought you said there would only be a few scientists on the planet?" Jack asked irritably. "You know I hate surprises, Jake."

"The operative assures me there is only a skeleton staff working within the facility, but it never hurts to be cautious, eh?" Jacob Carter smiled at his daughter reassuringly. She returned his smile and ventured a smaller one to the commander of SG1; he smirked and walked away to the cargo bay.

Over his shoulder he said, "Ok, Jake, Ok"

Jacob's eyes narrowed at the colonel's retreating form. In his mind Selmak spoke, soothing words, "Jacob, be patient with him, he has every right to be angry. He will come around in time; his heart has been wounded by Kanan's betrayal. He trusts you, I can see it in his eyes. He will not fail you or your daughter."

"I hope so, I hope so," he muttered under his breath.

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He pressed himself flat against the wall of the science facility as two Jaffa marched passed his position in glorious symmetry. Their armour clashed as they moved and he wondered why he was worried, they couldn't see him. They exited the room and he moved closer to the other open doorway. From there he had a better view of his quarry. Even in his current form he often wondered how she was, but as a being of light wondering took you places. So here he was, once again, drawn by her presence, watching Osiris, or rather, watching the shell of Sarah.

Often he wondered how she could look so 'Sarah', and yet with every movement and inference not be her.

She smiled, quite an evil smile and said,"How pleased my Lord Anubis will be when I bring him this evidence of Baal's treachery. Here is another secret development laboratory not disclosed to the System Lords. There will be much for them to discuss together." She turned on her heel and strode out, sweeping past just a whisker from where he stood.

He leaned once again against the stone wall and sighed heavily. He wanted to help her but was unable to, the others would prevent it.

The being was about to depart when a tiny movement caught his eye. In the centre of the room he could see a long stone table. He moved closer and his eyes began to make out a tiny hand on the table, its fingers drummed restlessly on the cold stone. His eyes moved instinctively up the limb to an ugly livid scar on the pale skin of the upper arm. He frowned and his fingers went to push up glasses he didn't need anymore, as he stared at the brand. It was the Tau'ri point of origin.

Daniel moved closer and saw that the figure concealed within the darkness, was a small child. She, for he could discern it was a she, was wearing a white robe, with nothing on her feet and had no blankets or covering to keep out the chill of the night. Yet, aside from the ceaseless movement of the fingers, she was motionless. He walked around the head of the table quickly, secure in the knowledge that her eyes wouldn't follow his movement. He saw, to his sorrow, that she was tightly restrained. Tight metallic bands lay across her ankles, wrists, waist and thighs, and somehow the combination of her fidgeting and stillness appeared ever more incongruous.

Suddenly, like the whisper of the wind in dry leaves the child spoke into the darkness.

"Am I alone?" The Goa'uld words unsettled him; they were very unexpected in a child so obviously of the Tau'ri.

Looking more closely, something stirred deep in his memory. The pale face was framed by long pale gold hair; strands of it fell over her face and as he looked at her, pity stirred in him.

"Noc tal'nowe,"(no, I am here) Daniel murmured absently.

The child turned her head sharply and looked deep into his eyes. Bright blue orbs glared at the paler blue ones, rapidly assessing the level of threat.

"Holy Hannah!" He stepped back as recognition hit him.

"Who are you?" the child whispered.

"Tal'mac Daniel,"(I am Daniel)

"Tal'mac,"(I am. ) the child's eyes clouded in confusion. "Hannah."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N** Thanks for your nice reviews . Sorry its been a week been moving house .

Looking for a couple of beta readers .If you fancy a go email me random and many

****

**Disclaimer** Dont own anything still seen no dosh

on with it eh?

**Chapter 5 **

The tel'tak exited hyperspace, and a split second later the cloaking device was activated. "The short range scanners have not detected any other ships in orbit of the planet," the Tok'ra flying the cargo ship remarked.

"That's good, very good," stated Jacob Carter smiling with relief at his daughter. With this major obstacle eliminated the mission should proceed with relative ease.

"Colonel," she spoke into her radio, "Dad says the coast is clear, Sir."

"Ok Major, O'Neill out." Her commanding officer's voice sounded slightly strained even through the slight interference produced by the cargo hold.

She sighed, "Yes Sir," towards the yet empty doorway. Sam could feel the tension in her superior officer, keenly. After six years of working together in a small team, they had seen all the facets of one another's personalities. However, following Daniel's 'death', their steady world at the SGC had been turned on its head. The remaining team members had been desperately trying to find a new stride with Jonas. Teal'c and Sam had largely succeeded but Jack, despite his _soldiering on_ speeches, was a creature of habit. It might take him forever to adjust but he was at least mostly making an effort with the younger man.

The Colonel appeared with Teal'c at his shoulder. The heavily muscled Jaffa carried his Staff weapon and bowed his head slightly towards Jacob.

"Ok campers, everyone ready?" Jack enquired.

"Indeed we are, O'Neill," his warrior friend intoned to his left.

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In the evening gloom, on the surface of the planet, a line of torches wends its way through the trees. The Jaffa escorting the tall, blond woman towards the stargate were careful not to catch her eye. The god Osiris had a notorious temper.

The seven-symbol address was dialled and the event horizon formed, with its signature burst of energy. The Goa'uld strode up the steps. Halting at the top, she turned and spoke to two of the group of Jaffa before her. "You will return and deal with any remaining personnel at Baal's scientific facility," she indicated two Jaffa warriors specifically with a slight inclination of her head.

They bowed slightly and said," Yes, my Lord." Osiris began to turn away.

"My Lord," the taller of the two spoke hesitantly dropping to one knee, his eyes cast down.

There was a heavy silence that hovered briefly as though the rest of the assembled men held their breath. When nothing unpleasant occurred immediately, the warrior chanced a look upwards. Finding the expectant gaze of the 'god' upon him, he continued.

"What of the 'specimens' the documents spoke of, and the 'host'? Should we retrieve them for you, My Lord?"

Osiris' eyes flashed in the beautiful face and the Goa'uld glared at the kneeling form as though she were searching his face for signs of treachery.

"Destroy everything," the god ordered with crushing finality.

"Yes, my Lord." The Jaffa spoke in unison and strode away into the encroaching blackness of the night.

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It was evening when the ring transporter deposited Jacob and the team in a neat circle on the dark planet's surface. They slipped into cover of nearby undergrowth and began to reconnoitre the immediate area. Once he had established they were alone, the Colonel broke the arranged radio silence.

"Ok, we're clear here. Teal'c, you and Jonas secure the area and watch our six." He turned and gestured towards the tree line, "We'll head for the outpost. Carter, take point, move out."

"Yes Sir," she replied, and with O'Neill's eyes watching her she headed towards the trees.

He turned to Teal'c and said, "Ok, T, keep your eyes peeled for any sign of trouble."

An expression of confusion spread across the tall Jaffa's face. The corners of his mouth turned down very slightly but as he turned to speak to the colonel, Jack strode away, quickly lengthening his stride to close the distance between him and his second in command.

Teal'c turned, still frowning, towards the younger man, who simply shrugged his shoulders.

Jacob Carter glanced over at his daughter as they moved carefully through the undergrowth. Her eyes moved left and right, scanning the horizon for any possible threat, and she cradled her P-90 in the crook of her arm as though sporting the latest prosthetic attachment. Sam smiled as her superior joined them and began scanning the trees for any signs of movement, in subconscious mimicry of his companion. Jacob noticed that as she and the colonel worked, they mirrored each other's movements with a military precision borne out of years of close combat, but then again their working relationship had long been an enigma to him. True, he liked Jack well enough, but the younger man could be crass and rude, and yet Sam didn't seem to mind. In fact she seemed to enjoy his humour. More than that, Jacob couldn't fail to observe her uncharacteristic deference towards the man; it went way beyond respect, in his opinion.

The Tok'ra was just beginning to consider possibilities that to his mind were highly unpalatable, when Selmak interrupted his thoughts. "Jacob," the symbiote chided gently, "We have a job to do here, and I know you are aware that Samantha has been an adult for many years now. Therefore she does not need or wish our interference in matters pertaining to her personal life."

"Yeah, yeah." Jacob said under his breath.

"What?" The colonel asked turning towards the older man.

"Nothing," he stated a little too vehemently, drawing a suspicious look from his daughter's clear blue eyes.

The awkward moment was broken, by the faint, but unmistakeable sound of boot-clad feet.

The colonel and major dropped into the bracken in one synchronised movement and began to quietly inch forward towards the pathway. Jacob, who had ducked behind a bush, followed suit aiming to arrive slightly further along the path than them.

When they reached the edge of the wood the Jaffa, as the noise of clanking armour had identified them, had vanished around a bend in the walkway.

"Heads up, Teal'c, we got company and they're headed your way." O'Neill spoke quietly into the radio.

"Understood," the tall jaffa replied.

"Major, you sighted two or three?" The Colonel enquired softly.

"Negative on the visuals Sir, _sounded _like three though," Carter, returned.

"How many?" Jonas asked, as Teal'c indicated with a turn of his head and a finger to his lips that his keen ears had detected signs of the approaching Jaffa.

Teal'c clicked his radio once to indicate the need for silence. He knew it was unnecessary, O'Neill would have already understood their situation as a result of his lack of reply. He motioned to Jonas that they should move to conceal themselves.

From his position behind a clump of long grass, Jonas could see a couple of Jaffa advancing down the path. As they drew level he noticed a child's bare foot amongst the boots of the warriors. When they had passed he chanced a look upwards, and whistled quietly under his breath as he saw they were frogmarching what appeared to be a small girl between them.

He looked over to Teal'c, who had one eyebrow arched upwards in surprise. Teal'c indicated with well-practised hand signals that they should follow quietly. The two team members were ready to move out when the enemy Jaffa stopped in the circular clearing containing the ring transporter and forced the child down to her knees before them.

The moonlight reflected on her white robe, illuminating her long blonde hair and her pale skin.

She was facing away from him and the Jaffa were standing behind her, staff weapons raised and open at the business end. Jonas' heart hammered in his chest, 'Oh god,' he thought,' they're going to kill her.'

In one fluid movement Teal'c rose, and fired his own staff weapon striking the Jaffa square in the back of his head, killing him instantly.

Jonas was already charging towards them, firing at the remaining warrior who had swung around, weapon ready, looking for the source of the attack. He had shouted, "No," as Teal'c had fired, and the child had flung herself headlong instinctively. He'd turned to watch the second man fall and by the time he had returned his attention to her she had fled. As Jonas slowed and stood over the two dead Jaffa he was only in time to catch sight of a shimmer of white vanish into the trees. His eyes searched from the tree line to the immediate foreground, but she wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Teal'c?" O'Neill enquired into the radio. "What's your position?"

"We encountered two jaffa. Upon closer observation it appeared that they were attempting to execute a child," he returned.

"What?" The colonel's voice was incredulous.

"We were able to prevent them, but in the ensuing battle the child was lost." Teal'c reported the facts with a barely tangible a shadow of regret.

"What happened?" Jack's voice sounded empty even over the radio.

"The child escaped into the covering of the trees and we were about to follow."

The colonel exhaled a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding and pursed his lips together, sighing in exasperation at this turn of events.

"O'Neill, should we not conduct a search of the area to locate the child and ascertain if she has sustained any injuries?" Teal'c enquired. There was another pause, during which the silence seemed to grow exponentially.

"Negative, we need to complete the mission, and flush out any further jaffa. Then and only then will we will play hide and go seek with the munchkin." The child's narrow escape had left the colonel feeling a lot more rattled than he cared to admit. As violently as he hated the idea of leaving a child alone in the dark facing a bunch of jaffa with staff weapons, he knew the priority had to be the scientific facility.

"Meet up at this position," Jack turned and indicated to his 2IC with a wave of his hand that they should secure their immediate area.

Jack swept past Jacob with a curt, "Skeleton crew eh, Jake?"

As she stalked away from them, Sam was suddenly glad of the darkness. Her pale face had flushed at her superior officer's rudeness to her father. 'Sometimes,' she thought, 'sometimes I could kick your dumb ass, Sir.' 'God, even her 'thought self' wanted to salute him', she shook off a wave of self-loathing. 'Focus,' she chastised herself, and forced her mind back on to the mission.

Returning from her circuit of the immediate perimeter, Sam found herself the subject of the colonel's intense scrutiny. She could hear the silent, 'Major? Stay focused,' emitted from the within the deep brown eyes. She smiled slightly to assure him she was fully alert. Jack held her gaze for a split second and then turned away satisfied.

"Ok. Teal'c and I have got your six, you three go in get what we need and then we can leave," Jack said in a businesslike tone. He turned slightly towards to Jacob Carter and said in a conciliatory tone, "Jonas has a good grasp of written Goa' uld, he should be able help you."

The tok 'ra nodded and said, "Ok, Jack," mentally accepting the olive branch the younger officer proffered.

With Teal'c and the Colonel keeping a steady watch a few metres from the entrance, they entered the facility, happening upon a scene of devastation. There were staff weapon burns on the walls and the surfaces were littered with smashed equipment. A few dead bodies lay haphazardly in the main lab area, and the smell of burnt flesh permeated the air.

"Holy Crap," Jacob said, his eyes searching the room for any remaining scientists or any evidence of their documents.

Sam strode passed a stone table fitted with metallic medical restraints and remarked, "Looks like they've been undertaking medical experimentation." She walked on into another lab. There appeared to be slightly less damage to this area and as her eyes swept the room she caught a small movement. Behind a console, propped up against a wall, a heavily wounded man, barely conscious was clutching a Goa'uld documentation slab. He gestured for her to come to him.

"Dad, get over here quickly." She knelt down beside the man but recoiled slightly, sensing the presence of a symbiote within him. Sam stood and took a step back, only to find her father's hand upon her back.

"Merrick?" Jacob asked in alarm, stepping past his daughter. He placed his hand against the pulse point on the man's neck. The operative's eyes fluttered open.

"What happened?" Jacob asked. "You reported that there were no Jaffa stationed here."

"Osiris came," the Tok'ra agent's voice rasped, and he began to lapse into unconsciousness.

Jacob gave his shoulder a gentle shake, "What about the Tau'ri genetic material?" He asked swiftly, painfully aware time was short.

The agent grimaced as another wave of pain washed over him. "Worst-case scenario. The Jaffa," he halted, painfully drawing another breath, "Taken, destroyed or captured."

"Merrick, is this the documentation here?" Jacob gestured towards the slab clutched to the tok'ra's chest, but with a faint bubbling in the host's chest the light of the operative's eyes faded and he was dead.

"You knew him." Her words weren't a question but a statement. The deep sorrow in her father's eyes answered any lingering doubt that might have remained in her mind.

"We must leave before those Jaffa are missed." Jacob straightened, holding the 'palm slab' in his hand and glanced at his daughter, all traces of emotion gone, his military past evident in his bearing.

"Major, report." Her radio burst into life, reminding her she had failed to keep the colonel apprised within the allotted five minutes, and that consequently his patience had expired.

She reached the door to the facility and found him already there, "It doesn't look good sir. The Tok'ra operative, Merrick, died but he was able to give us the intel. Dad's making a final sweep of the place now. Merrick said the Jaffa were Osiris' and that they had taken the genetic material."

"Alright Major," The colonel interrupted the rapid flow of information, holding up his hand. "Return to the ring device, and search the Jaffa bodies before you ring up to the ship. You know what you are looking for. Round up the troops and head back. Teal'c and I will search out the kid and meet you back at the ship." The colonel turned and indicated to his Jaffa companion who had been patiently listening that they were heading out.

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The child lay motionless in the dry, leafy bracken of the forest floor. She had waited a long time for her captor's assailants to pursue her but they hadn't. Now, fear clutched at her insides as she considered the possibility that she could be left alone. She rapidly considered her options. She could stay and maybe end up dead at the end of a staff weapon, or find the men who had saved her and hope they would return her to 'The master's' house.

She decided that to seek out the men would be the better option and set out across the clearing back towards the facility. As she walked purposefully across the stone circle set in the earth, the ring transporter activated and she was swept up into the inside of a ship. Immediately the girl took steps to conceal herself behind a pile of metal boxes as she heard a man's voice enquiring who was there. Obviously, she thought, he was a Goa'uld. Her body had reacted as it did when 'The master', or his warriors approached. Behind a nearby pile of discarded equipment she spotted a weapon. She knew it was such, as she had watched in fascinated horror as the blue light belched out of it and felt the corresponding agony within every muscle of her body, when she had displeased her Lord.

The young Tok'ra was mystified. He glanced around the interior of the cargo bay.

A pleasant female voice floated through the doorway, "Kiran, prepare to ring us up."

The man turned and strode out of the room, half jogging to the console at the front of the room; he seated himself there and fiddled with a control. Behind him, spectre like, a small pale shadow slid through the door. As he spun around in his chair towards the sound of the activated transporter, he met a cold, clear pair of blue eyes. Startled he looked down, only to see the first of two shots of the zat'nik'tel clutched within the small pale hand.

I


	6. chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** I own diddly and I ain't getting any money. All for the love of it eh ?

**Spoilers **Too many to mention (random up to season 9)

**A/N **My apologies for the short break in transmission due to technical errors. Still haven't got my beta issues quite ironed out yet, so anyone who canand who'd like to drop me a line pleaasse ! All and every error is mine only . enjoy and review if you want any more it is addictive eh ?

**Chapter 6**

Within a second, the ring transporter returned Major Carter and Jonas Quinn to the cargo bay. Sam unclipped her P-90 and headed towards the forward control room. Colonel O'Neill, her father and Teal'c had remained on the planet's surface, to attempt to locate the child lost in the recent skirmish with the enemy jaffa. She had returned to assist Kiran, the Tok'ra who had piloted the ship. The Major's orders were to begin a sensor sweep of the area, looking for life signs, with the intention of pinpointing the child's hiding place.

Sam stiffened slightly as she approached the doorway, her nerves jangled, something felt 'off'. It was way too quiet and so far Kiran, had not appeared or offered any greeting.

"Kiran?" Sam called tentatively into the room, extending her arm to prevent Jonas continuing through the opening.

The only sound was her heart thumping in her throat. Looking at Jonas, she tried to gauge whether he had similar misgivings. Sam gestured for him to cover her as she approached the doorway to the room. Sliding up to the opening she drew her zat and glanced quickly round the door.

To the side of the control panel, Kiran lay motionless on the floor. His head was thrown back and his lower limbs were bent awkwardly beneath him. Beyond his terrible stillness, his body bore no outward signs of serious injury.

"Clear," she stated to her companion as she made her way across to the fallen man. Jonas, his Zat drawn and cocked ready to fire, covered the room. His eyes roved left and right in order to secure the area while the major worked.

"Is he?" The question hung in the air whilst Sam anxiously felt for a pulse.

"Dead?" she enquired. "Yep."

Switching seamlessly into military mode she reached for her radio tucked in the pocket of her vest.

"Colonel, respond." The major sounded anxious, even to her own ears.

"Carter? Whatcha got?" O'Neill was obviously, non too patiently waiting for results.

"A situation here. Sir. Kiran is Dead." Sam stated the facts succinctly.

"Carter, secure the rings, we're on our way." His stilted vocals indicated they were already running back in the direction of the clearing.

"Controls secured, Sir," she returned. "I'd say he was hit by a couple of Zat blasts."

Sam turned towards the doorway and indicated to Jonas that she was going to return to the cargo bay. She knew there was a high probability that Kiran's killer was still on the ship and she didn't want to give them any indication of their game plan as they began a security sweep of the ship.

"Jonas, ring them up on the colonel's signal." She murmured as she passed behind her new team member and headed across the adjoining space. In the cargo hold she could see the stowed heaps of discarded equipment and metal storage containers they had brought with them on the mission.

The hairs on the back of her neck prickled, she whipped round expecting to see someone right behind her, but the doorway was empty. Across the hall, Jonas raised his eyebrows in a silent enquiry.

Sam shrugged, her frown deepening as she surveyed the room.

'There is someone here, I can feel it,' Sam thought eyes narrowing, as she scanned the rear cargo hold.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

From her position, concealed behind the cold metal boxes, the child had watched the two arrive via the' rings' and enter the room where she had killed the 'man'. She coolly observed the woman place her long fingers at the man's throat but the knowledge that he could not give her away did nothing to ease her disquiet.

The respite gained when she killed the man had ended with the intruder's arrival on the ship. Once again the spasms of irritation that seemed to emanate from every cell of her body had begun to consume her. Although the sensations did not seem as acute this time, she still felt as though she wanted to scratch all her skin off. The child shuddered involuntarily and gave herself a mental shake; she knew the revulsion would dissipate in time.

Within the 'Master's' presence she had learned quickly to hide her horrified reaction to his initial proximity, as retribution was always very swift and terribly painful. She had quickly developed the ability to school her features into a mask of studied indifference.

The Jaffa, who had been assigned to guard her, had called her 'tiny warrior' and had patiently answered her many questions regarding their weapons and equipment. As a result she understood the mechanics clearly enough to fire a staff weapon, though she was a little too weak to lift it, and was fairly, no _extremely_, lethal with a zat. The 'Master' had insisted she be able to defend herself, and she had made him proud.

Stiffening, she was jolted from her reverie by the sensation of her skin prickling all over. She attempted to manoeuvre further around the far side of the stack before she was discovered, but it was just too late.

The woman called out, "Ok, move real slow and throw out your weapon or we will fire." Although she couldn't comprehend the words she deduced from the tone that the game was up. The child hid the hand containing the weapon she carried within the folds of her robe.

She dropped to her knees, deferentially lowering her eyes; she decided to play to her strengths.

Major Carter had her weapon trained on the near side of the awkwardly arranged stack of boxes. As she carefully circled around the edge of the cargo bay she watched for signs of retaliation from behind the makeshift defence.

Sam realised that over the head of her Zat, she was staring into the deep blue eyes of a tiny girl. Pale gold hair framed her face and the white of the robe she wore was somehow only slightly paler than her skin. The sapphire eyes, huge and solemn were slowly filling with tears. Sam gently lowered her weapon and smiled encouragingly.

"Hey there, sweetie," she remarked quietly, "Don't be afraid, we aren't going to hurt you." The major took a step towards her, holding out a hand. As the girl raised herself to her feet, her hands remained enveloped in the white robe she wore.

Jonas, responding to the colonel's signal activated the ring device. Metal rings rose from the floor seemingly suspended in mid air. The major's gaze flicked to the reintegrating forms of her teammates. She glanced back, just in time to see the child's lips curve into a cold, cruel smile as she squeezed the trigger on the zat clutched in her hand.

"No!" Jonas and the colonel shouted together. The child looked down dispassionately at the immobilized form of Sam on the floor of the cargo bay and raised the zat to administer a second deadly shot.

In the same split second while time purported to stand still, Teal'c advanced a single pace, raised his zat and fired. The little girl crumpled to the ground with a wordless cry, her weapon falling uselessly to the ground beside her.

"Sammie?" Jacob uttered a single strangled cry, but as they darted forward, it was to the child the tok'ra dashed, scooping her up in his arms. He looked searchingly at her small face, which was distorted by the excruciating pain the zat had delivered. A series of emotions flashed across his face until his expression seemed to settle upon bemused and he wordlessly handed her limp, immobile form to Teal'c. The Jaffa had watched his seemingly unaccountable behaviour silently, his eyebrow slowly escalating his forehead. Jacob strode quickly to where Jack was kneeling beside the unconscious form of his daughter.

"Carter?" Jack reached for her hand.

"Carter, come on, wake up, dammit," Jack rubbed her hand, held tenderly between his own. He stretched the fingers of his other hand towards her face, smoothing hair from her brow but swiftly withdrew it as her eyes began to flutter open. The colonel expelled a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding, and rocked back on to his heels.

"Hey Dorothy, back in Kansas?" Jack enquired.

"Oh crap, I hate those things." She croaked wearily.

"Sam, are you ok?" Her father frowned as he looked over Jack's shoulder.

"Fine, Dad," she stated confidently, as she began to rise.

"Oh no you don't, Major!" Her superior officer interrupted, placing a hand on her shoulder and summarily ended all movement.

"Just you stay there a minute and catch your breath."

"But, I'm," she began irritably.

"Ah!" He raised his hand, cutting her off mid flow. "You know better than to _but _me, Major! Rest up a couple of minutes. That's an order." He raised himself to his feet, his knees creaking, never taking his eyes of his subordinates face. A face, currently wearing an extremely insubordinate expression.

Sam wrestled momentarily with the idea of defying him. However, something of her mental battle must have shown in her expressive blue eyes because she noticed her superior officer's expression darken slightly, as he steadily locked her within his gaze.

Jacob was irked. These conversations, devoid of words, but rich in unspoken communication and non-verbal subtext, wore him out. He was aware many things were currently being said between the colonel and his daughter. He was also aware he was not privy to any of it.

Sam broke the tension. Lowering her gaze she muttered, "Yes, sir," mutinously.

"Thank you, _Major_," he replied caustically turning away.

As the colonel completed the turn to face him, Jacob observed a trace of a smile hovering on the younger man's lips, and then Jack actually winked.

Smothering a grin, before his daughter spotted him. Jacob realised O'Neill knew exactly how to handle her. For her own good, she needed to take a minute, but her sense of duty, coupled with an intense dislike of appearing weak forced her to push her body, sometimes beyond the limits of its endurance. Jack, it appeared, had discovered that usually a direct order, which she could not in a military sense refuse, would do the trick.

However, as Jacob commented inwardly to Selmac, he hoped the colonel would not be afraid to back those orders up with action should the need arise.

Jack was keenly aware that his tough colonel act was not going to cut it indefinitely and that one of these days she would call his bluff. Precisely what he would do at that point… Well he would cross that bridge when he got to it. You can't exactly make an air force major take a timeout now, can you?

He smirked. He could and he would …if he must.

"O'Neill?" Teal'c's voice called his attention back to the present. "There is something here you should see."

He headed for the tel'tac's crew quarters, where his friend's voice had originated. The room was situated towards the rear of the ship. Around the room were spaced grey metal bunks, which jutted out from the wall. Jack strode up to the bunk on which the jaffa had laid the little girl.

"So do you think this is the munchkin or do you think there's more of them out there?" Jack enquired crouching down beside the still unconscious child. Eyes closed, her teeth were tightly clenched and muscles still twitched spasmodically as the effects of zat blast wore off.

"I believe this is indeed the child we encountered on the surface." Teal'c replied stoically, his eyes never leaving her face. A muscle twitched slightly in his jaw, the only sign that he felt any regret at her current condition.

"There was no other choice, T," Jack said, correctly anticipating his friend's darkened mood

Teal'c nodded imperceptibly, recognizing Jack's attempt to mollify him, before he continued. "This child has not been treated well, O'Neill. It appears she bears the mark of the Tau'ri upon her." He paused to gently raise the child's arm. As the folds of the robe fell back, a red, angry, but totally recognisable mark was revealed. The Earth's point of origin branded on her skin.

"Baal!" The colonel hissed. The colonel rose angrily, his deep brown eyes blazing, "only a sick son of a bitch would do that to a little kid!"

"Indeed!" The warrior said ominously the twitching in his facial muscles intensified.

Beside them the girl began to whimper in distress.

"Noc, Dis'tra, ne'nai." (No, master, don't) She mumbled brokenly, still breathing heavily.

"What?" O'Neill looked at his friend puzzled.

"I believe that 'No Master Don't', is a literal translation, it is a Goa'uld dialect. I regret that this may not be a new experience, O'Neill."

A tear leaked from under her eyelid and shuddering breaths shook her slight frame.

Instinctively, Jack reached out to brush the moisture from her cheek. The child's head turned sharply and the colonel found himself staring into brilliant blue eyes. Shocked by the unexpected intensity of the scrutiny to which he was subjected, O'Neill jerked his hand back as though burnt.

The child's eyes narrowed and then flicked over his shoulder, to the Jaffa behind him. She scrambled to her feet, stepping back along the bunk and flattening herself against the wall.

"Kree Jaffa!" The child screamed, her eyes scanning the room for the closest means of escape. Tears began to stream down her face, as the effort of the sudden exertions to its toll.

"Hey, take it easy! We're not gonna hurt you." Jack reached forward to gingerly place his hand upon her arm.

"Ne'nai! Ne'nai!" (Don't! Don't!) The girl, took another rapid step back along the wall, and found herself standing at the edge of the bunk Her eyes had locked on to the jaffa's immobile face. O'Neill realised that his warrior friend was the source of the child's escalating terror. Anxious not to frighten her any further, he motioned for Teal'c to step back towards the door, before he attempted to approach her again.

Her eyes were wildly searching around. The colonel realised belatedly that the child was about to make a break for the door. He lunged forwards, one knee braced on the bed, as she started to jump, and caught her by the wrist. The little girl began to scream hysterically. The colonel enveloped her in his arms, turning her inwards and pulled her in close to his body. Thrashing her limbs aimlessly, she screamed and sobbed out a torrent of words in a language he couldn't understand, beating her small fists ineffectively against his chest. Jack turned and seated himself on the edge of the metal bunk. Calmly and methodically, he began to fold the errant limbs within the safety of his embrace, all the while speaking softly, uttering soothing words.

Before long, the child was completely immobilized upon his lap and although initially this served only to enrage her more, the struggling eventually stilled only to be replaced by noisy sobs.

Jack shifted the child slightly on his knee and pulled her face in tighter towards his shoulder, he stroked her hair absent-mindedly, gently rocking her to bring comfort.

Gathered safely in the arms of this man, the child felt the tension she felt begin to ebb away. The soothing movement of his body and the soft words that rumbled into her ear through the wall of his broad chest worked upon her in new and unknown ways. She was still very frightened but even as her tears were soaking the man's shoulder, she also drew strength from him. He would save her from her master's enemies and take her home. She could trust him.

In the back of his mind, a memory was struggling to surface; it had begun to niggle away at him. He squashed it down in case his emotions betrayed him. The child sighed deeply, and then yawned. Her tear stained face turned towards him and the blue eyes slid closed. Jack felt all her taut muscles shudder, then finally relax and as she began to breathe more deeply, he realised she had fallen asleep.

The colonel glanced upwards to find that an audience had silently assembled within the crew quarters.

His mind traitorously produced the image he had denied space and suddenly he was back in his house with a tantrummed out Charlie asleep on his knee, sipping a beer and watching the game on television.

Jack's arms tightened slightly and his eyes glazed in response to the unbidden thought, the child drew in a great shuddering breath and hiccoughed, and the memory film played on almost indistinguishable from the present.

"Jack, Jonas has got something." Jacob's voice cut through the images assailing him.

"Colonel, the documents we retrieved are a type of logbook detailing the progress of Baal's experimentation with Tau'ri genetic material. It seems he was attempting to engineer a stronger host, probably for his mate, One better predisposed to tolerate a symbiote. It appears that…"

"Worst case scenario?" The colonel impatiently enquired.

"It is sleeping in your arms, O'Neill," Teal'c nodded towards his friend.

"She's the DNA sample?" He croaked in a strangled voice. The colonel had made the logical mental leaps swiftly, the pieces assembling like a mental jigsaw. The colour drained from his features. He glanced down at the child sleeping safely in his embrace.

Lost in the throes of his translation, Jonas failed to see the colonel's face exhibiting a host of different emotions before he regained control of his errant features.

Jack turned and placed her gently on the bed, he looked at her features, relaxed in sleep and drawing a cover over her, searched there momentarily for his son. He stiffened as images of Charlie's face white, cold and drained of life assaulted his thoughts. Pain clouded his mind as he lived in the terrible memory momentarily.

'No,' he thought savagely. 'I will _never _be ready to do this again' and drawing down steel shutters in his heart to keep everything within he turned away from the bunk containing the girl and headed for the door.

From the doorway, Sam had watched the scene play out before her. She had known, from his posture, the vicious nature of the demons he fought in his mind. Her eyes met his as he turned and she almost gasped at the cold anger she saw there. She planned to step towards him but his eyes, almost black drilled into her. She shivered imperceptibly and remained stationary, unable to console him. He walked past them all, without so much as a second glance. The major sighed and shook her head wearily.

Over his shoulder Jack called, "Teal'c ya wanna take us back to…er. Where ever we came from?"


	7. chapter 7

A/N: Thank you for the continuing reviews nice but must have mooorree ! Any spare betas email me. Hope you continue to enjoy !If you need a laugh though read my little fic 'Timeout' its funny! new this week.

Spoilers: None to speak of.

Rating: Still K+

General Hammond stood anxiously at the base of the metal ramp in the gateroom, situated deep under Cheyenne Mountain. The previous twenty-four hours had been amongst the most anxious of his long military career. The low success rate of this type of covert mission, coupled with his flagship team's knack for attracting trouble were a guaranteed recipe for disaster.

The correct IDC had been received along with a short radio transmission from the colonel stating a survivor accompanied them. A medical team had been duly called and now everyone waited, holding their breath, for the arrival of SG-1.

The event horizon rippled like a soft breeze on the surface of a Minnesota lake and every eye in the room was on it. Hammond was just beginning to wonder nervously what was keeping them, when Jonas stepped through the stargate. Major carter followed close behind him, shoulders drooping slightly. The general noted with concern that her complexion seemed more than usually pale. A question died on his lips when Colonel O'Neill erupted through the event horizon with Teal'c close on his six. An explosion of sound accompanied them. It appeared to emanate from the small child slung firmly over the colonel's right shoulder. Two bare legs kicked frantically from beneath a grubby white robe and as the colonel came to a halt midway down the ramp, Hammond caught sight of a flash of pale blond hair just below his elbow.

The wormhole disengaged, and Hammond looked between his two officers, both wearing equally grim expressions. As he opened his mouth to start his enquiry with the major, who was awkwardly trying to evade looking directly at him, the screaming began again and his gaze was drawn back to his 2IC.

"Noc! Kreeeee! Rin'tel'noc! Kreeeee!"(No! Stop! Get away from me! Stop!) The little girl struggling in the colonel's grasp screamed a steady torrent of words, only stopping to draw breath. She was clearly not feeling terribly happy to be here.

"What in God's name is the meaning of this, Colonel?" The general finally snapped out a question.

"Well, Sir," the colonel began," it seems that the '_wizard'_ made a munchkin out of our 'genetic material'." The precarious control he had on his volatile temper was beginning to slip. "So if you were picturing a worst case scenario, this is it." His voice rising dangerously, he gestured with the thumb of his glove-clad hand, back in the direction of his shoulder.

Right on cue the girl began kick and struggle again. The colonel tightened his grip around her skinny legs, so she beat her fists, albeit fairly ineffectively, on his back.

The general frowned, "Any risk of her being a .."

"Bomb?" I don't think so, Sir and Carter says she isn't a goa'uld either." Jack anticipated his superior officer's train of thought, mostly because on the trip home he had already thought all of those thoughts, and many more.

General Hammond thought momentarily, running the situation through to several divergent conclusions, then he sighed and gestured wearily towards the door, "Report to the infirmary SG-1, get Doctor Frasier to check you all out. Debrief in one hour." He turned and strode out of the gateroom and headed purposefully towards his office.

The Doctor in question rounded the corner, followed by a couple of medical orderlies with a gurney. She strode up the ramp, and immediately zeroed in on the source of the racket.

"Ok, colonel you can give her to me now and we'll get her to the infirmary," she said in a brisk voice.

To her surprise, he scowled and shook his head slightly. "Oh no, I don't think so Doc, I think I'll bring her along for you or we may never get there and I do not intend to get into another game of chase with this little hellion tonight. So, you go ahead and get a honkin big shot of something that will make her real sleepy ready, as I can tell you now, that'll be the only way you'll get blood out of this stone. Doc!" He paused theatrically,"I think you may have met your match!"

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed tilting his head slightly towards the diminutive doctor.

"Never!" She said under her breath as she jogged towards the elevator.

Jack looked over his shoulder to check Carter was following him. She had stood silently beside him on the ramp, in the gateroom. He knew from her behaviour that she was still a little shocked after the revelations of the last 12 hours and the shot from the zat. He needed to get her to the infirmary so the doctor could check her over too.

His eyes met hers in the elevator. Much, and yet nothing was said. Teal'c stared resolutely forward choosing not to notice, beside him Jonas hummed a jaunty tune, the goa'uld device still tucked under his arm, he even tried to coax a smile from the furious girl.

The child began to scream again as the doors slid open.

"There's nothing wrong with her lungs," Jack remarked eliciting a friendly smile from his 2IC, albeit one which never reached her eyes. They turned the corner and pushed open the door of the infirmary.

"Di'dak'dida, Ha'shak! Shak'ti'qua Ha'taaka?" (How dare you, Fool! What do you think you are doing, 'As$$e?')

With this last volley, a muscle twitched violently, in the side of Teal'c's face.

"Kegalo!"(Silence) He snapped a further volley of authoritative commands, the unexpected bite in his deep voice causing everyone in the room to jolt.

The child spat out, "Shol'va !"

O'Neill turned his face towards his jaffa friend, "Er T?"

"I do not care to repeat her words O'Neill!" He stared forward, resolutely refusing to meet the colonel's eye, his face a study in extreme distaste.

"What did you say to her? Cos it sure worked!"

Teal'c nodded minutely, "I merely informed her that on Chulak, children who called their elders such disrespectful names could expect to be severely punished"

"But we aren't on chulak, are we?" Jack's voice bore just a thread of reproach.

"I am aware of that, O'Neill, however the child is not!" His lips quirked upwards slightly, clearly showing some amusement " She has clearly spent much of her life amongst jaffa."

"Ya think?" Jack shot back sarcastically.

Teal'c smirked, in as much as a jaffa has ever be known to smirk and retreated to a cubicle at the far end of the infirmary. As Teal'c disappeared within the curtain, Jack yelled, "Chicken!"

He turned back to find that Jonas had disappeared in the opposite direction. Only the Major remained. Jack gave her a sideways glance that arrested any thoughts of escape she may have had.

A stifled sob and several loud sniffs rose from his shoulder.

"Okay, sweetheart. I'm not shouting at you," the colonel guiltily shifted the girl from over his shoulder. She tried to wriggle free again but his strong arm still encircled her waist, immobilising her. He brought her down and tried to rest her on the bed but reaching his hip, she flung her skinny arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder. He sat down heavily, sighing inwardly. 'This is gonna be ugly', he thought.

Dr Frasier had been about to suggest taking the child from him again but something in the look he wore on his face changed her mind. The colonel was holding her so protectively, that she knew that attempting to remove her would be highly detrimental to both patients. She settled for asking questions whilst waiting for the sedative to arrive.

"Has she been injured, Colonel?"

"A few cuts and bruises, and shot by a zat, six hours ago."

"What?"

"Don't ask."

"Has she eaten anything?"

"Nope."

"Has she slept?"

"Yep, nearly six hours."

In fact, after crying herself to sleep in his bunk, the child had slept nearly the whole way home completely exhausted by her exertions. The rest of the party had continued to talk in hushed tones in case they wakened her, surprisingly this had included Jack who had regained his normal sarcastic demeanour very swiftly; way too swiftly Sam thought. They had discussed the mission findings thus far, at length.

They had come to land and having been greeted by several Tok'ra it had been decided that it would be prudent to let her sleep on. Consequently, the colonel had reluctantly, lifted her into his arms, her head resting against his shoulder peacefully as they had walked quietly across the barren plain towards the stargate. However, when the wormhole had engaged the tiny girl had stirred in his arms and awakened. Realising at that point that the planet the ship had landed on was empty, except for a number of Tok'ra; she had known that she wasn't going to be returned to her master's care. She had reacted violently and had struggled to release herself. She had succeeded, but only after biting the colonel's arm; swearing, he had dropped her. The child had taken advantage of his temporary incapacity, and run away. Speedily she had begun to cover the short distance towards the darkened wasteland beyond the gate, her bare feet pounding rhythmically on the hard baked ground. Thrusting his P-90 towards Teal'c, Jack had given chase, quickly run her down and had crossly thrown her over his shoulder.

"I'm going to try to sedate her now colonel, if you can just keep a firm grip there." The doctor spoke soothingly as she gingerly pulled up the dirty robe, exposing a section of the girl's thigh and swabbed the skin with a sterile alcohol wipe. Janet turned and walked quickly to collect the syringe from the tray at the end of the bed.

The doctor advanced rapidly as she forced a small amount of the pale liquid through the end of the needle in her hand. Turning towards the voice, the child's bright blue eyes widened in fear as she spotted the needle and she fought with greater conviction, a burst of adrenaline kicking in.

"Carter," stated the colonel. "Help me out here?" He was now only just holding on to the terrified, squirming girl.

Sam moved swiftly, catching a swinging limb, to help him hold her still on his lap. He looked into the major's white face and said, "Thank you."

"Ne'nai! Kreeeee!" (Don't! Stop!) The little girl sobbed hoarsely. The needle hit its mark. She yelped slightly and jerked as it was withdrawn, tears slid down her face soaking the front of his shirt.

The colonel murmured, "I'm so sorry," under his breath, as he lowered his forehead until it touched the top of her blonde head, completely concealing his face.

The child's muscles began to relax as she slowly slipped into drug-induced oblivion.

"Oh fercryin out loud!" He jerked upright; suddenly realising that the warm sensation he had unexpectedly been feeling was a highly unpleasant liquid soaking through his clothing. In her fear and distress the little girl had wet herself.

He placed her on the hospital bed, and with a wry smile he gestured to his clothes, "Er, Doc do you mind if I just go change. We appear to have had a slight accident."

"Go ahead colonel," she replied kindly. She was secretly, extremely pleased he was going because then she would have the opportunity, while working on the child, to question Sam.

She watched him as he strode out of the infirmary, with a sideward glance and a half smile in Sam's direction.

Janet looked back to the unconscious girl on the bed and sighed. The child was painfully thin, and the robe had ridden up slightly, revealing bruising in a rainbow of colours upon her skinny legs. Barking out swift orders Janet quickly divested her of her soaking, dirty clothing and washed her carefully. She quickly changed the sheets beneath the child, the doctor rolled her back and forth between herself and the orderly expertly. Janet left a nurse to dress her in a pair of pale pink pyjamas from the stock they now kept in the infirmary for unexpected refugees. She pulled back the curtain to deal with Sam.

"So, Major," Janet began professionally, closing the curtain behind her," where did you find this one?" She waited for her friend to begin; but Sam hesitated as though uncertain of the answer and then shook her head slightly as if to clear it.

"She is the genetic material, Janet" Sam looked haunted. The Doc was confused.

"Baal made her." Sam clarified the situation succinctly.

"So, What she's …?" The Doctor left the question hanging.

"Jack's." Two spots of high colour appeared on Sam's cheeks, as she looked away anxious to avoid her friend's penetrating gaze.

"And you find that …What? Disturbing? Unnerving, What Sam?" The doctor asked perceptively whilst conducting a thorough examination.

"Janet!" her friend hissed, urgently glancing over her shoulder. "Someone'll hear you, and he'll be back any moment."

"Fine, but this conversation isn't done yet, Samantha Carter." Janet left Sam alone briefly. She returned expertly filling a syringe. Smiling sweetly she said," Drop your pants Major, you need a little vitamin shot, you're looking a little pale."

The major groaned audibly, briefly considering an argument, but discounting it when she remembered that doctors could cause you serious pain when they're pissed. She bent over and loosening her belt, submitted to the procedure and then reorganised her pants, wincing.

"I think I just need to…" The major halted mid sentence as she heard the door swing open and then close a moment later, signifying the colonel's return.

"Colonel!" Jonas' voice floated across the room and swift footsteps followed it up the infirmary, "Colonel, the Tok'ra operative indicated this was the scientific data that relates to the child, right?" Jonas wore a look of mild confusion.

"Er, Carter? You spoke to the snaky scientist, didn't ya?" Jack enquired through the curtain.

"Yes sir," Sam replied opening the curtain and coming almost face to face with her superior officer. "Why?"

Jonas interrupted," In the goa'uld document; there is a reference to the origin of some of the genetic material."

"What does it say?" Jack asked, steeling himself inwardly for what he considered a foregone conclusion. 'Baal, me, me Baal' not much doubt there.

"It er," Jonas glanced awkwardly at Sam and a slight blush stained his cheeks.

"What?" The colonel snapped his patience failing.

Jonas took a deep breath and launched into his findings. "It refers to SGC material obtained for Baal, via a third party from Adrian Conrad. The goa'uld word is difficult to translate. I believe it says 'ovum'."

Silence hung like dust in the air, as the colonel spun slowly towards his 2IC. All colour had bleached from her features and his eyes searched her face as she fought the backwash of emotions that were threatening to overwhelm her. The 'ovum' had been hers.

"Carter!" He said urgently, trying to claim her attention, "Sam!" The use of her given name jolted her back to the present and she swayed slightly. "Sit down Major," the colonel spoke softly. "Doctor Frasier is going to look you over."

She sat obediently on the edge of the bed, still staring into his eyes, like a drowning woman clinging to driftwood. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't construct an intelligent sentence. Complete brain lockdown.

Janet's eyes grew wide with shock, she remembered Sam's abduction; Hell! She had finally examined her, after the colonel's bullet wounds had been attended to, when they had been brought back in together. There had been signs to suggest she had been internally examined, and Sam had cried, feeling sick and violated. However, she had remembered almost nothing of her captivity as she had been drugged nearly the entire time.

"We need to do a full Dna screen, Doc to firmly establish her exact parentage." Jack's voice commanded her attention, detached and cold, like they were discussing a pound of C4 and a bag of detonators.

The doctor was surprised at the cool tone in which he discussed this latest development. Especially after the way he had held and comforted the child, and glanced periodically at Sam to assure himself of her well being. It was as though he had tidied away all those messy emotions along with his clothes. Janet knew better than to comment, always a bridge at a time with O'Neill.

He sat down on the bed, next to his subordinate his thigh touching hers, she turned, jolted from her reverie by his presence. Sam looked into his eyes, her own stricken and shocked; he gently patted her hand, conveying his silent support.

"Okay, so we want a full blood screen, and an MRI, while she is still out. People, lets go. Move!"

Janet was a fearsome sight when she was in 'E.R.' mode, Jack thought as the curtains flew back and he saw intravenous cannulas introduced into veins in the back of both of the child's hands. About six vials of blood were removed from one and a saline drip introduced much needed fluids into the other. The doctor felt the back of the child's neck, then opened her mouth and peered in.

"By the looks of these milk teeth she is about five years of age. There are no adult teeth erupted in here, as yet" she remarked almost to herself.

"Wow, She's quite tall for her age then," Carter spoke quietly to the colonel. He nodded, smiled and returned his gaze to the figure on the bed.

"Top of her right arm there is a burn, you should look at, Doc." His voice although quiet reached Janet's ears easily. She eased the child's arm through the elasticated neck hole of the pink pyjama top. The livid symbol stood out from the alabaster skin. The diminutive doctor's breath hissed out from between her clenched teeth.

"Sweet Jesus!" She swore. "It's not recent, at least a couple of months but still far from completely healed." Janet glanced at Jack, whose hands had balled in to tight white fists.

"Monsters!" She spoke with some conviction. The colonel nodded his silent agreement.

"How long will she be out, Janet?" Carter enquired wearily.

"Oh quite a while, Four to Five hours and I may extend that yet. She is extremely traumatised and we may need to keep her sedated until she recovers a little. It could take some time to gain her confidence," The doctor replied frankly.

"We should get to the briefing, colonel," the major suggested turning back to the seated figure beside her.

"Not until you've both been checked out, you won't. Colonel, you are looking a little pale." the doctor's tone brooked no argument and so he complied.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

General Hammond listened in growing disbelief, to the young kelownan's translation of the goa'uld experiment document. It appeared that the facts were; the child, currently sedated within the infirmary had been created from genetic material stolen from Major Samantha Carter. Stolen by the scientists working for the goa'uld Adrian Conrad when she had been kidnapped. That the girl had been seriously mistreated was evident, but she would recover physically, as for emotionally, or psychologically noone could be certain.

The tale of the jaffa's attempted execution had further fuelled his long held hatred of the goa'uld and their callous use of innocents to achieve their ends.

The appearance of Doctor Frasier with the child's test results had ended his mental tirade. He motioned for her to be seated and she chose a seat at the far end of the table opposite Teal'c and then began. "She appears to be malnourished, dehydrated and evidently she has been mistreated." She paused to pass vivid photographs of the brand on her arm to the general and on around the briefing table, followed by photographs of livid bruising on her legs and chest. What I can't determine is what psychological damage has been inflicted upon her. Did she talk at all when you rescued her, colonel?" "

"No, nothing" The colonel shook his head, raw fury building in him as he viewed the evidence of her other injuries. He quickly suppressed the feelings of outrage he was experiencing, telling himself that he would feel that way for any child, and he was just doing 'the job'.

"You will be pleased to know, there is absolutely no evidence of any device or tampering with her teeth and apart from her obvious distress she is other wise in reasonable health."

Janet paused; 'best way just to get it out' she thought, "There is little doubt that Major Carter is the child's mother, genetically speaking. She has a high quantity of naquadah in her blood and preliminary tests indicate a Dna match."

The general looked at Sam, who had paled and was staring directly across at her commanding officer. She was willing herself to be calm at least until they were dismissed. Jack's normally expressive eyes were dull and lifeless as he stared directly at her, not appearing to notice her obvious distress.

The doctor had paused letting this information sink in before she dropped the rest of her payload of bombshells.

"In regard to Colonel O'Neill," Jack's jaw muscles tightened and his eyes flicked to the doctor and away again as she continued. "We are still waiting for the second DNA screen but the presence of the distinctive 'Ancient gene' in the original test goes a long way to suggest we will find a positive match in those results." She paused, waiting for a reaction but found there wasn't one so she continued.

"The child has been aged with nanites, similar to those used on the colonel a few years ago. But they appear to be essentially inactive now. In fact I am pretty sure the decay of these nanites is raising the naquadah levels in her blood considerably."

"That would explain how I could sense her presence on the tel'tac and why she reacted to so badly to Teal'c and Dad. Do you remember how Cassie reacted to Jolinar? She used to say it was like someone inside her skin trying to peel it off." Sam looked down the table to her friend.

The doctor caught on to her idea. "So, what your saying is with all of the naquadah in your blood and symbiotes on board she must have been agitated beyond belief!"

"It would appear highly unlikely we will gain the confidence of the child until the naquadah within her body is contained." Teal'c rumbled looking over to the colonel.

"Or we can suppress the response," Janet mused, already thinking of possibilities. The colonel winced as he considered the tests and interference the child would endure if this were allowed to proceed, but Janet was the doctor and he; well he was nothing to her.

"Ok, Doctor Frasier I want your recommendations for the best treatment of this child on my desk as soon as possible." General Hammond spoke, drawing the briefing to a close. "Jonas, finish up that translation and get it to me. Colonel, if you would remain a moment, everyone else, dismissed."

The others quickly evacuated the room, knowing an uncomfortable conversation was about to ensue. The base commander waited for them to leave before inviting colonel O'Neill inside his office, entering through the side door.

"Take a seat colonel, " he gestured towards the two chairs before his desk, as Jack trailed in behind him, like a bad kid on a trip to the principal's office. He was seated and studiously looked everywhere but at the general.

The general sighed, " This is not a situation the air force ever envisaged in its regulatory planning committee."

"Sir?" The colonel enquired, not entirely sure what he meant.

"You pair, now have a child on your hands and we all have to make some difficult decisions on her behalf," the general spoke kindly aware that a 'daisy cutter' had just detonated in his officer's lives. He watched the younger man's face for any signals as to his state of mind. Jack's face showed nothing. A hard mask of indifference had slid into place and the general knew from experience it would be locked there until he chose to let it drop. He continued to study his features until, with a heavy sigh Jack's eyes dropped to the floor.

"Permission to speak freely sir?" Colonel O'Neill spoke quietly still looking at the floor, strangely formal.

"Go ahead son."

"I'm not sure what you want me to say, Sir. I don't know how I feel, what I want. Hell! I don't even know her name." He drew in a ragged breath and raised haunted eyes to his commander's face, "I'm not sure I'm ready for parenthood, I'm not sure I'll ever be ready again."

To his surprise General Hammond snorted.

"Jack, you were born ready! You love children and judging from tonight's performance in the gateroom, you're already sunk!"

"Sir?" Jack was bemused by Hammond's behaviour.

"You weren't gonna let anyone carry her to the infirmary, and I bet ya didn't let Dr Frasier have her til the last possible minute, did ya?" The older man chuckled as a faint blush stained his 2IC's cheeks, indicating he was right on the money.

"Erm, I was concerned that …" The colonel was embarrassed. The older man interrupted.

"Does she look like him, Jack?"

The colonel exhaled heavily, "No sir, she's just like Carter, but she kinda reminds me of him." He smiled involuntarily as he thought about it.

"It's the way she chucks a tantrum, I guess."

The general smiled a wry smile, "That was an O'Neill temper if ever I saw one, Jack."

"Ya think?" Jack returned. The general's face grew serious,once more.

"Son, think carefully about what you want, I will have to inform the president about this anyway and it would be a good time to make changes," the general tailed off.

"Changes? What do you mean changes?" Jack sprang up anxiously staring at the base commander, "I mean this isn't our fault, Sir!"

"I never said it was, Jack. But a child changes everything and you and Major Carter are going to have to take some tough decisions about the future, together."

He looked at the younger man closely to see if he had taken the mustard seed of his idea. He couldn't suggest it but he could sow the idea and hope it reaped the harvest of an O'Neill style plan."

Jack turned and left the office, musing over the general's words. Behind him he heard his superior officer say, "Dismissed," But he was already gone, propelled forward by the momentum of his own thoughts.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: **I don't own them, the men in grey suits do ..

**A/N:** Erm ship ahoy ! Thanks to stargate-fan for beta assistance, I couldn't, do , without her . Review if you like it, if not weeeelll if you can't say somethin nice ...

**Spoilers: **Can't think of any right now

Chapter 8

A strange and acrid smell was the first thing she noticed as the fog in her mind began to clear. The girl felt completely disorientated, unsure of where she was and unable to pinpoint any of the thoughts that held the key to her current situation.

High-pitched beeps permeating her consciousness signalled the return of one more of her reluctant senses. Gradually she remembered her capture and the man who had taken her through the gate as his prisoner. She began to wonder if she would ever see her master's house again, whether they would search for her, after all she had been gone long enough to be missed by now. Punishment would await her.

Pain wafted in slow waves across her body as the effects of the sedative wore off. She breathed deeply and steadily to control her rising panic and opened her eyes slightly, glancing around to ascertain her position.

The girl found herself alone in a soft bed, at the end of a cold grey room. A pale blue curtain pulled halfway around her bed obscured her view of the remainder of the room but she could see lights blinking on machines around her. Shifting slightly against the sheets, she felt soft fabric brush against her leg. Glancing down, she realised angrily that they had stolen her robe and replaced it with a pair of pants and a matching pink top.

She could hear sounds of people nearby, but realised that if slipped out now no one would miss her. Gingerly she raised her head, and then paused to regain her equilibrium. The child glanced at her arm; puzzled by the sight of a tube emerging from the skin. Seeing it was attached to a bag of 'water' she began to panic, her mind conjuring up all sorts of terrifying thoughts. Some minutes later, having reassured herself that it wasn't slowly killing her with poison she started to calm whilst still aware that it would have to come out, in order to effect her escape.

Gritting her teeth she pulled, the long needle emerging in a gush of blood. Cursing softly, she wrapped the sheet tightly around her arm, biting her lip to suppress a whimper of pain. The girl took several deep breaths to steady her nerves, and then carefully sliding down from the bed she padded silently on her bare feet, towards the doorway. A sudden rise in the noise level startled her and she ducked behind a bed; holding her breath whilst looking around with as much as she could without moving she spotted a trolley with metallic objects upon it.

When the echo of feet had died away she selected an implement with a sharp blade and snuck on towards the exit. The dimmed lights in the rest of the infirmary concealed only empty beds and a lone orderly in the small nurses office writing reports, by the light of an angle poise lamp.

Pausing in the shadows by the doorway, she listened closely for sounds of movement, hearing none she slid around the doorway and scuttled down the corridor. Rounding the corner she sensed rather than heard the approach of a group of people, panicking she hurriedly tried the handles of the doors. On the fourth try she got lucky, diving inside and closing the door a split second before the enemy made her position. The child slid wearily down the wall, suddenly overcome by dizziness and nausea. The sheet encasing her arm gently turned crimson as her blood seeped through.

'SG-1 TO THE INFIRMARY. REPEAT SG-1 TO THE INFIRMARY. STAT'

"What the Hell happened here, Doctor Frasier? I thought you said she would be out for hours." The General's irritation was nearly palpable.

"I don't know what to say, Sir. She was given enough to sedate an adult man. There were staff here whilst I was in the commissary. I assure you, Sir I will be investigating why she was left unattended."

Janet, accompanied by Sam had been on her way back to the infirmary when they had run into General Hammond on his way down to see her. Needing a progress report on their young charge, he had decided to come in person and take the opportunity to look at the child closely while she slept. Instead they had discovered the ward in uproar and the child missing. The general had swung into action paging the remaining members of his flagship team, and ordered all the SF contingentto begin a sweep of the base.

Colonel O'Neill loomed in the doorway, fury etched into his features, his expression murderous.

"Where is she?" The tall officer advanced, glaring between the petite doctor and his 2IC.

"Jack, she can't have got far," the general began soothingly, laying a warning hand on the younger man's arm. "This is a military base son, we will find her."

"Why was no one with her? Are you telling me that when she woke up, she was alone?"

"Colonel!" Hammond interrupted his tirade.

Whilst Janet had paled significantly at the anger in the colonel's voice, Sam was completely ashen. No one ever woke up alone; his presence ensured that. He glared at her pointedly, and Sam looked away, blushingguiltily. The remaining two members of SG-1 entered the infirmary, Jonas halting to appraise Colonel O'Neill on the SF's progress whilst Teal'c strode over to investigate the now empty hospital bed.

"O'Neill," Teal'c called as he examined the bed in which the missing child had rested, "There is blood here."

"Blood?" The colonel growled renewing his glare at the doctor.

"She must have pulled out the IV." Janet muttered, "We need to find her quickly!"

"There is more here by the door," Teal'c stated pointing out a minute spot.

"Lets go," the colonel exited the room following the jaffa.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What are you doing in here?"

The child jolted back to reality and peered into the darkness, brandishing her scalpel.

"Rhe'u!" (Stay back) She whispered.

"Ya'ol'wa?"(What's the matter?) The figure emerged from the darkness and frowning crouched down next to the cowering girl.

"Daniel?"

"Ti'u"(yes.)

She expelled a breath and smiled slightly, at last someone familiar.

"Will you help me?" She asked in a strangled whisper, peering intently at him, her huge eyes solemn and pleading. "Please, I want to go home now."

Daniel sighed, rocking back on his heels and steeled himself to disappoint her.

"No, Little one, this is your home, now."

"Noc,"(No) The sound barely audible, tears of betrayal filling her eyes.

"Ti'u, (yes) _they_ are your family." Confusion clouded her features as she rolled his words around in her mind.

"Family?" She asked raising her face to look into his.

"They are to whom you belong now, Hannah." He patiently explained.

"I belong to the master, I must know no one but him." Her voice began to rise, as panic set in.

"Noc (No), you are free and your family are searching for you." Daniel looked towards the door as sounds of the search halted there.

"Ki'banja'swei!"(We must hide!) She scrambled to her feet and turned back to face him but he had gone.

Glancing around wildly she saw with horror the handle of the door was turning.

The child retreated swiftly, back towards the rear of the storage room, but in her haste she fell over a pile of supplies, which clattered, to the floor, the noise echoing in the darkness.

Two SF's were silhouetted in the now open doorway, "Who's in here?"

The senior of the two fumbled for the light with his left hand whilst carefully scanning the room with the flashlight in his right. The younger of the two radioed back for assistance.

"Team seven niner, we have located a bogie in level one niner, section three seven, storage room four niner, please advise."

The colonel's voice echoed down the corridor behind him, "What ya got lieutenant?"

"Sir! Not sure Sir. Heard a noise and were about to proceed with utmost caution, as ordered, Sir." The young officer stood to attention, until the two men strode up, awaiting further instructions.

"Stand down, airman we'll take this from.."

"YEEEOOOWWWW! Sonofabitch! " The captain, who had crossed to the racking to investigate a sudden movement his keen eyes had detected, emerged gripping his knee, blood dripped through his fingers. Spotting the colonel he attempted to straighten up and salute.

"What happened?" Jack enquired, urgently closing the distance between them and the door.

"Freakin kid stabbed me!"

They entered the storage room, and immediately spotted the girl, swaying slightly, clutching a bloodstained scalpel, a bulky sheet wrapped around her arm. She hissed, as though in pain when she spotted Teal'c and he prudently retreated to the hall, just out of sight.

"Give that to me and lets go back and see the doctor, sweetie." Jack spoke reassuringly and the child seemed to relax perceptibly, as she focussed on his face. When he took a small step towards her, she brandished the blade; first at him, then with a visible flash of insight, pointed it towards her own chest. He halted and addressed her again.

"You don't really want to do that! Give it to me. Please ?"He extended his hand to receive the blade but there was not even a flicker of recognition now only a cold hard expression set on her face.

Jack stood there for a minute as she resolutely held his gaze and then stepped back towards the door. There was only one way out and while he had it covered, she wasn't going anywhere.

He looked out the door, straight into the eyes of Major Carter, her face still taut and white. He smiled, looked over his shoulder and said, "Guess who I found." He could just see the evidence of the child's first assault disappearing down the corridor with two of Janet's medical personnel.

Sam tentatively returned his smile, reassured by his confidence. Her posture relaxed in response to the colonel's relief at what lay within the room. Sam felt her guilt begin to drain away and for the first time since their return from the planet she saw 'her colonel' begin to make an appearance. "What's going on in there?" she asked after a second. The general and Doctor Frasier were also anxiously awaiting his report regarding the situation in the storage room. He addressed himself to the group.

"She has a scalpel and is going to dissect herself if we don't let her out! Definitely a scientists kid." He smirked and looked at Teal'c and Jonas who both raised their eyebrows in a show of subconscious mimicry.

"Teal'c, you go in and tell her to put it down, she can't understand me," the colonel gestured towards the doorway.

"I do not believe that would be wise O'Neill, the child becomes greatly agitated in the presence of my symbiote." Teal'c reasoned.

"Jonas, you can…"

"I can only read it, not speak it, colonel," Jonas interrupted, holding up his hands in mock surrender.

Sam exhaled a breath irritably, "Could you tell him what to say Teal'c?"

"Indeed," the warrior nodded imperceptibly and looked to General Hammond who nodded his agreement.

"Ok, what do I say?" Jack stated business like again.

He strode back through the doorway and saw that the child had remained completely immobile.

"Aray Kree!"(Stay where you are!) The child blinked, her eyes widening in astonishment at his words.

"I'Jaji'biai?"(Can I have that?) Hearing this she moved her hand, as if trapped in between two thoughts, and Jack knew he was almost home and dry and slid a step nearer.

"Yas!"(Now!) The last command, he snapped out, jolting her from her reverie.

The blade dropped from her grasp and she dropped to her knees, her eyes cast downward, hands stretched out palms upwards in an obvious posture of submission.

"Punish me, Dis'tra,"(Master) she whispered.

Confusion clouding his face, Jack was completely thrown by her behaviour. He turned towards his jaffa comrade who was now filling the doorway, for his assistance in translation.

"The child addressed you as 'master' and requested that you punish her, O'Neill."

Jack's expression was inscrutable as he turned slowly back towards the kneeling figure.

"No!" He stated and moving to the door, he motioned to the Doctor and her team to retrieve the child and render her medical assistance.

Peeking out through her lowered lashes, she stifled a gasp when the man strode away and left her kneeling on the ground. A silver tear dropped onto the forearm of her outstretched hand and she shivered. Then, in the shocked silence that followed his unexpected departure, she felt strong arms sweep her from the floor and she surrendered to oblivion with a final damning thought. 'I am unwanted.'

Jack watched them, carry the unconscious child away to the infirmary and then waited for the general's order of 'Dismissed' and purposefully steered Sam away in the direction of her lab.

One hour later, the child lay in isolation room three, restraints firm around her tiny limbs and a new IV bandaged securely to the other arm. Peering through the one-way glass above the room, General Hammond watched as the medics moved like hive workers below him. All the while the child lay motionless, more relaxed in the restraints than at any time since they had met her and all the while her slender fingers drummed on the plastic covered mattress. She wasan incongruous combination of movement and stillness. Her eyes stared glassily at the ceiling and she showed no reaction to the Doctors ministrations, nor to any of their questions.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Major Carter sat down heavily on the stool within her lab, her dread at the onset of 'the conversation', as she had dubbed it, had grown with every step she had taken towards her domain. Normally her lab was a place she retreated to, a small kingdom of safety and security where she was the ruler and everyone else entered only by permission. Today, a coup had occurred and she was left feeling uncannily like a prisoner of war. The colonel's presence filled the room, and as he sat down on the opposite side of the bench she was suddenly uncomfortably aware of his proximity.

"Sam," He spoke gently, her name like a caress in the silence. The major jumped, visibly startled by the warmth in his tone and she forced herself to look deep into his eyes.

"We have to talk, Sam."

There, the dye was cast, the words were said; 'we have to talk.' She looked down at her hands, her heart sinking to lie heavily in her stomach, 'no escape now' she thought.

"Houston, we have a problem! Ring any bells?" He attempted to inject some levity, to alleviate the awkwardness of the situation, and partially succeeded as she smiled slightly and nodded but was still unable to dredge out any words.

He sighed heavily, his shoulders slumped, "We have to decide how we are going to proceed, major."

"Proceed?" Sam asked tentatively, "Proceed with what?"

"Well, we have to consider what we're gonna to do about the munchkin."

Sam drew in a deep breath and caught her bottom lip between her teeth, "I hadn't got quite as far as that as of yet, Sir."

"Me neither, but the general has a duty to inform the president about her _arrival,_ and he would rather have an idea as to what our wishes are before he begins the process." The colonel raked his hand nervously through his greying hair and silently sent up a prayer to any gods currently tuned in.

"Do you mean you're considering keeping her?" Sam asked carefully.

"Carter, I'm not sure what I mean, but I know I don't want to sentence her to a life of foster homes and government care, Hell, Daniel would never forgive me." He paused surprised by the sudden depth of his own feelings.

"You're right, He wouldn't forgive either of us. But she is going to have issues Sir. We don't know if she'll ever be able to lead a normal life, much less if Baal's genetic engineering is viablein the long term."

Colonel O'Neill nodded miserably," I can't consider that, right now." He sighed again.

"I want you to know, Sir I won't stand in your way if, you know, if you want to adopt her." She looked away pained.

"Carter, I didn't…" He started at the quiet determination in her words that almost but not quite completely masked her sorrow.

"Listen, I know you love kids and she likes you I can tell. I mean, she can't even be in a room with me, because of the naquadah." She tailed off as the colonel quietly placed his hand on hers. He silently laced his fingers between hers and gently raised it to her face.

"You know what the Doc said about that, Carter, you'll figure it out. And as for adoption, I don't want to do it on my own. She needs a family, and right now we're it. So watcha think? Mom?"

He searched her features hopefully and she smiled a watery smile in return.

"Ok, Jack. What's the plan?"

A/N : Review Review Review (Please)


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer :** still not mine (sob!) but I live in hope ! 

**A/N :** Thank you for all the kind reviews ! They are really appreciated! Encouragement helps me write faster!

Thanks to stargate-fan for the beta help you are invaluable (as well you know!)

**Chapter 9 **

****

The following morning, early when the base was still quiet Colonel O'Neill made his exit quietly from the general's office.

"Thank you Sir, I'll do that, Sir." He closed the door and turned rapidly almost running down his 2IC.

"Well?" She hissed urgently.

Taking her by the arm he steered her off towards the commissary and the hearty breakfast, he knew he could manage now.

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On the other side of the office door General Hammond sighed heavily as he watched it close, and opened his middle desk drawer and placed another resignation letter inside. He already had quite a collection of them; some from personnel who whilst recovering from combat situations gone sour felt temporarily unable to continue and some from those who quickly discovered that the front line off-world was no place for them. He told them all the same, 'take some time, and think about it and I will too, in a week or so, we'll talk again.' It weeded out those choices made in the spur of the moment and those taken following careful consideration.

The resignation he'd received today was from his 2IC, Colonel Jack O'Neill, Hammond had

been expecting it. Still he'd told him the same, but this time he had no intention of accepting it; he had other

ideas tucked up his military sleeve.

He leaned forward in his seat to buzz the intercom on his broad oak desk, when as though summoned by thought alone his aide, Walter Davis knocked on the door.

"Come," He stated with only the trace of a smile. 'How does he do it?' The base commander thought and shook his head slightly in amusement.

"Anything I can do for you, Sir?"

"Er, yes. As a matter of fact sergeant, I want a message sent to the Asgard."

"Yes Sir," Walter beamed, and executing a perfect salute and parade ground turn he left the general alone in his office.

"It's going to be another long day," He sighed.

UNAUTHORISED OFF-WORLD ACTIVATION, UNAUTHORISED OFF-WORLD ACTIVATION!

Sirens blared and a contingent of SFs had automatically begun to deploy, fully armed into the gate room as Hammond moved from his office to the control room with speed that belied his age.

"Receiving the Tok'ra IDC Sir," Sergeant Davis stated looking expectantly at his leader.

"Open the iris," The general cast over his shoulder, already making his way down the spiral staircase on his journey to the gateroom. He had been expecting this visit; in fact he was amazed it had taken as long it had.

The members of his flagship team met him in the hall, and Colonel O'Neill gestured for him to precede them; he entered the gateroom as two figures emerged from the shimmering event horizon.

"Jacob, I was wondering when you would make another appearance." The two generals strode

towards one another, hands outstretched.

"You know me George, can't keep away." The Tok'ra halted at the base of the ramp and warmly grasped his old friend's hand.

Formalities observed he moved past him, and hugged his daughter warmly.

"Sam, how are you?"

"Fine, Dad," she assured him quickly. "But we need to talk, there have been some developments."

"I guessed as much," he stated evenly. "That's why I secured the assistance of Anise, before returning. Selmac believes her expertise may be invaluable in uncovering information regarding your guest." He gestured towards the Tok'ra who had been standing with quiet dignity a pace behind him at the base of the ramp.

"Not to put a fly in the proverbial ointment," The colonel rasped caustically behind his 2IC, "But if she won't even talk to us, you won't be able to tell if she's a _zantac_or not. And I just know the doc doesn't need the munchkin with any more juice so, no alien bracelets either." His mouth had twisted rapidly into an ugly sneer, as his unconcealed dislike of the Tok'ra operative had begun to assert itself; he finished his statement with a derisive snort and cast a triumphant glance towards Teal'c. The impassive Jaffa had merely raised his eyebrow in such a way as to show surprise, and a good degree of censure at his friend's rude behaviour, not that anyone else would have known the difference.

"Lets take this discussion up to the briefing room people" Hammond stated firmly, he could do without an incident in the gateroom and remembering the audience he barked out, "Stand down, Airmen," as he led the way out of the door, feeling suddenly like a bizarre pied piper.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In the muted lighting currently employed in 'iso room three' there was currently no movement except for the petite Chief Medical Officer of the SGC. Although she could delegate much of the observational duties of the infirmary to her nurses and orderlies; due in no small part to their high level of training and her confidence in them, there were still some things she liked to do personally. She could almost hear the voice of the Doctor who had been her mentor whilst she trained, 'whilst charts and figures can tell you much about your patients condition, Janet. There is no substitute for going in person and looking with your own eyes and touching with your own hands.' So, had begun the long ingrained habits of 'doing the rounds' and taking a pulse, 'always an excellent indicator of a patients health', the now departed tutor instructed.

The pulse she was taking now, belonged to the newly discovered child of two of her closest friends, and as she counted she gazed on the angelic features of the little girl trying to pinpoint the resemblance.

She was almost the image of Samantha Carter whilst in repose with rosebud lips in a heart shaped face, surrounded by a cloud of golden blonde hair, albeit scruffy and unkempt and pale smooth skin. Janet had spotted the piercing blue eyes; undoubtedly the strongest trait, when the child had come in. Innocent eyes she had thought until she had spotted the fierce intelligence behind them. She was a carbon copy of the major; her friend had surmised, until that is she had seen the girl in action.

The initial tantrum, Janet had put down to trauma and shock but having observed her long into the night after the child's 'escape attempt' the doctor had seen all the colonel's familiar mannerisms played out in his daughter. The little girl had fought them like a wildcat when she had recovered from her faint, and had glared her defiance in a classic O'Neill intimidation strategy since then. Having refused to answer any questions whatsoever nor eat or drink any fluids she had finally succumbed to the sandman's dreams at 05.00 hours, aided and abetted by a shot of Valium and the Doctor rhythmically stroking her hair.

She had responded to the doctor's gentle touch like a tiny kitten, gradually leaning further and further towards her ministrations until the child was almost rubbing her head along Janet's hand. Doctor Frasier had felt her pity and compassion begin the evolution into deep regard and onward towards love for this spunky little warrior.

However, angelic she appeared, Janet knew the child was going to be a major headache. Another case of the patented O'Neill aversion to the infirmary and all things medical, the doctor knew she was going to have to find a way to quell the girl's violent outbursts and begin to lay the foundations of trust. Janet knew it wasn't going to be easy and that she needed both the colonel and Sam's cooperation. Most importantly she needed to suppress the effects of the excessive quantities of naquadah currently in residence within the child's system. Her medical brain in overdrive, Doctor Frasier considered a number of approaches to the problem and eventually decided upon a combination of three.

She would transfuse the girl's blood through a filtration machine in an attempt to screen out some of the metal permanently, and keeping her sedated she would gradually lessen the drugs to a point where the child could function over a period of time. At the same time, she would begin a careful process of aversion therapy; exposing the child to longer and longer sessions in the presence of either her mother or Teal'c.

Filled with a sense of urgency she strode out of the room to galvanise her team into action while the girl was still sedated. The doctor returned a few minutes later, topped up the sedative through the IV and directed the orderly who had followed her to deposit his dialysis machine to the right of her bed. It should take four hours or so, Janet thought as she deftly inserted the needles required for the machines smooth operation. Leaving two nurses to supervise the young patient closely, she bid them good morning instructing them to keep the expected SG-1 vigil down to one visitor at a time thereby ensuring they; her other charges slept and ate.

Stifling yawns of ever-increasing intensity she made her way to her base quarters situated close by on the infirmary level and fell into her bed, surrendering to the bone weary tiredness she had been fighting most of the night. The result was a knockout.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I am not going to let that _woman_ near my daughter, whatever you say Sir!" The colonel punctuated his outburst with a fist crashing onto the highly polished surface of the briefing room table.

"Stand down, Colonel!" General Hammond bellowed leaping to his feet.

This sudden and uncharacteristic behaviour from his superior officer cut through the younger man's anger providing enough opportunity for rational thoughts to flow once more in his mind.

He wondered just when exactly the fact that the little monster was _his daughter_ had entered his subconscious and taken root. The colonel was sure he would have made reference ten minutes ago to 'the patient', or 'the child' and now here at the first sign of Anise and her alien devices she was _his_ daughter and he had to protect her. Jack knew that it no longer mattered whether he felt ready or not; he had to be. They needed him and he began to see for the first time in years the possibility of having a real family again.

"Sir," Major Carter looked at the colonel intently, "If I may?" She asked his permission to continue her eyes pleading with him to exercise restraint for the remainder of the briefing, and a little patience.

"Knock yourself out, Carter." O'Neill stated sarcastically and seated himself again still throwing angry glances in the direction of the female tok'ra. The General sighed, seated himself and glared at O'Neill who was in his opinion two comments away from a trip to a holding cell, extenuating circumstances or not.

"Dad, I think that the colonel's reservations are entirely down to the fact that the child has already suffered a severe trauma and we are all unwilling to be the cause of that event occurring again. Right Colonel?" She shot the colonel a quelling look.

"Yes," He nodded in agreement, carefully avoiding looking at her face.

"All our experiences with this technology have been none too positive, so far and we **_both_**," She paused looking pointedly at O'Neill. "**WE both** are unwilling to undermine her trust in us any further by hurting her anymore."

"Sam," her father ventured carefully, "no one is going to hurt her, in fact that is the very reason I have asked Anise to accompany me." He took a deep breath, '_carefully Jacob',_ Selmak chided internally,'_ you have their attention now.'_

"Anise has been involved in the development of a new and more advanced memory device." He held up his hand to ensure he could continue before the host of immediate refusals graduated from indrawn breaths to raised voices.

"It targets memory according to how strongly it was received, and it accesses it in such a way that the brain experiences it like a dream. The beauty of the system is the individual can be unconscious. As their active participation is not required, we can view the revealed memories on a screen using the old technology and they wake up completely unaware that anything untoward has occurred."

"So, what in essence we are doing is prompting her to dream of her past?" Jonas asked attempting to make sense of Jacob's words.

"And we just sit back and watch it in widescreen?" The colonel asked with a hint of distaste.

"Essentially, yes." Jacob turned towards the younger man who seemed to relax slightly. Jack turned towards his 2IC.

"Carter, whatcha think?"

"I think that our options are limited and I know that Dad wouldn't allow Anise to proceed with this if he wasn't one hundred per cent sure that it was safe. Right Dad?"She turned her piercing blue eyes on the older tok'ra and he nodded and smiled.

"I wouldn't dare."

General Hammond leaned forward in his chair at the head of the table and placed his hands on the smooth wood. The movement was enough to refocus the attention of all those under his command back towards him.

"If I may," He began quietly looking between the colonel and Major Carter carefully. "The child is a guest of this facilities infirmary presently, and as such I feel it will be courteous to extend an invitation to Doctor Frasier to participate in any decision taken regarding her welfare. Furthermore, it has long been my opinion that prudence regarding technology of an alien origin is well worth exercising, so if you will permit me I suggest we wait until I have consulted Dr Frasier before we make any decision, hasty or otherwise."

He shared a congenial smile with everyone around the room, and without waiting for any arguments rose from his chair and called, "Dismissed."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Some hours later, the group reconvened in isolation room three, where the members of SG-1 had been engaged, one after another in a quiet vigil by the bedside of the sedated child. The girl has slept on, blissfully unaware of the fierce debate which had raged back and forth, the SGC most of the morning and long into the afternoon. Doctor Frasier, when she had awoken had been extremely unhappy about allowing such a procedure performed on a patient in her care and had argued for a delay of some weeks until the girl was feeling stronger and more at peace with her fate.

However, Jacob's persuasive words had prevailed and in the end even Janet had to agree that the benefits that learning the knowledge pertaining to her previous existence would bring would assist them with how to move her treatment forward. So it was with some trepidation that she had agreed to monitor the child's vital signs and maintain her deep sedative state whilst the device was active.

In return, she had wrung assurances from General Hammond that she be allowed to terminate the procedure on medical grounds at any point, should she see that the girl was becoming medically distressed.

Anise had gathered her small case of equipment and followed Jacob to the child's bedside and begun to unpack the things she needed.

"I will first apply the device to the child's forehead," She stated as she placed it next to the girl's right temple.

"She won't feel it, right?" Colonel interjected, breaking the tense silence.

"No, Sir," the doctor replied confidently, "she is very deeply unconscious at present."

"That's good," He stated and winced, reliving his own experience of the memory device as the Tok'ra firmly pushed it into his daughter's head.

"I wish I'd been sedated," he murmured, subconsciously rubbing his own temple as if feeling the wound once more.

"Oh Yeah." Major Carter echoed.

"Now I will inject the drug which stimulates the memories to surface like dreams," Anise stated carefully explaining her actions, anxious not to provoke the colonel any further today.

She carefully placed a trigger device next the child's neck and fired in a quick shot of the drug, then the ariel attached with a snap to the device placed at her temple. The elegant tok'ra stepped back and dipped her head, the softer tones of the host Freya signifying the change in control.

"Now, we must wait for the strongest memories to surface; they will display on the screen in a few moments. Major Carter is the interface you have prepared fully synchronised as yet?"

"Yes, almost there," Carter stated, whilst fiddling with her laptop, "Just a final analysis of the frequencies to perform when the device activates."

"Tell me why we want make this a home movie again, Carter?" O'Neill stated peering at the screen closely over her shoulder.

Carter smiled, sighed inwardly and patiently explained," when we dream images can sometimes come out jumbled or quickly. So in order for us to analyse them appropriately and get the most out of it we need to be able to go back over it again slowly. There may even be information relating to Baal's stronghold which may help us, lying in her memories."

"Ok just wondered." The colonel cut his subordinate off with a wave of his hand.

"Yes Sir." She sighed quietly rolling her eyes at Teal'c while Jack turned away, he raised an eyebrow imperceptibly and turned to his friend.

"O'Neill, All will be well Doctor Frasier has your daughter's welfare as close to her heart as it is your own."

O'Neill nodded, part soothed, part embarrassed at the impassive warrior's intuitive exposure of his fears for his child.

"I know that T, just want to be kept apprised," The colonel stated offering a small smile to the doctor.

The device activated and with a soft hum the visual screen opened, appearing in mid air above the child's head. Swift images strobed on and off the screen in rapid succession and carter worked swiftly to modulate the frequency of the SGC equipment until a picture appeared on her lap top screen and she began to record them digitally on to a disk.

Anise used a hand held device to turn the intensity of the memory device down by small degrees and gradually the images slowed until nothing remained but a soft grey hue on the screen like pale moonlight.

"I will turn the device up one level and images will begin to be displayed. They will undoubtedly be distressing so if I may suggest; could we clear the room of all but the necessary personnel?"

The security detail moved to outside the open doorway, and Janet nodded to the two remaining nurses that they could return to the infirmary. General Hammond signalled to Jonas and Jacob that they accompany him to the observation room, on the next level where they would be able to watch through the one-way glass. That left Jack, Sam, Janet, Anise and Teal'c who had taken up station in the doorway blocking entry to anyone who may have taken it upon themselves to try.

Anise moved the device and from the grey appeared a familiar image, the retreating form of the colonel striding out of the supply room door, the previous day. Over the familiar sounds of the base emerging from the screen came a softly spoken phrase in a goa'uld dialect.

"What did she say?" Carter looked at Anise, astonished that this was the child's strongest memory.

"Literally translated she said, 'I am unwanted.'" The tok'ra stated evenly.

"No, that's not true. That wasn't what she was supposed to think." O'Neill whispered turning saddened eyes towards his 2IC.

She placed her hand gently on top of his, which had clenched into a fist on his thigh, "It's just a new memory that's why it's so strong. It was the last thing of significance that occurred before Janet sedated her again. That's what happens when you are five, everything is a huge deal until the next thing happens."

He nodded still unconvinced that he hadn't blown his chances of fatherhood already.

The screen displayed more images of the SGC, some of the Doctor and her staff, needles, and the infirmary bright lights. Seen from the child's perspective the normal run of the mill base took on sinister and terrifying overtones.

"We need to work on our welcome wagon; I don't think we are hitting quite the right tone." Colonel O'Neill quipped with a wry smile on his face. The truth was that he was shocked at how the child had viewed the grey prison he had come to think of as a home away from home, he resolved to talk to the General about what could be done to minimise the angst for any other alien children they collected on their travels.

He hissed a rapid indrawn breath, as there on the screen was the face of his most hated enemy appeared.

"Baal," He whispered menacingly before he shivered involuntarily the goa'uld's icy tones still having an affect upon him despite the time passed since his escape.

"He is instructing her that she must be prepared to move on to the next stage of development, that she is to guard against those who would steal her away from him. Interestingly he refers to her as 'Honoured Host', from his point of view she would need no other name but that of his mate or offspring; whichever she was to be." Anise continued her commentary of the goa'uld's words.

The scene changed and an empty room came into view devoid of colour, natural light or anything to add stimulation. In the immediate foreground there were bars reminiscent of a cold metallic playpen, the only sound was a low whimpering noise. Periodically as the 'dream' played out a tiny white hand, would extend into view. The palms crisscrossed with welts, of varying depths and degrees of severity.

"Oh, God." Sam's hand flew to her mouth, confronted by the child's suffering on the screen. The colonel's fingers tightened painfully on her other hand and a muscle twitched in his jaw.

The face of a woman appeared, leaning close in to the cage like construction, speaking in a low voice, furtively glancing over her shoulder towards the door.

"She is a slave in Baal's household. She is telling the child that if she does not stop disobeying her 'master' then the rest of the slaves will all be punished because of her."

The whimpering continued until two jaffa marched into the room and the woman her eyes having widened in fear, began to rail at the child in urgent tones and opened the door and reached in to haul her to her feet.

The now familiar sound of their child's insistent sobbing nearly broke their hearts and they watched in horror as through her eyes they were propelled down a hallway with high ceilings, and into a bedchamber of sorts. Sparsely furnished it contained little that anyone could associate with the presence of a child.

The woman began to roughly brush the child's hair eliciting a few muffled yelps and a fresh round of weeping, quickly silenced by the unmistakeable sound of skin connecting sharply with skin in a hard smack.

"Kree'ta!"(Stop that.) The woman stated cruelly, "The master wishes to see you, and you will be grateful, for your honour though I see not why _you _deserve it. There how presentable you look."

The child was turned roughly, by the shoulders to face a long mirror. The image that those assembled in the SGC saw was of a child of about three, with the same long blond hair but bewildered and frightened. Gone were the hard eyes and tough exterior erected in obvious response to this onslaught of physical violence. Raising her painful hands she valiantly attempted to scrub the treacherous tears still streaking down her pale face

The child stiffened as the silky smooth voice of the goa'uld Baal penetrated the near silence of the room; she flinched and looked at him in horror, her expression still visible in the remainder of the mirror as she turned. Too late she tried to school her features as she sank to her knees, just in time to see his face twist into a sardonic smile, "When will you learn? I wonder … when?" His words still hung in the air as he raised the zat in his hand and fired dispassionately.

Everything faded to black and the only sounds heard in the isolation room were the anguished cries wrenched from the child trapped within the memory, impassioned pleas for mercy as the effects of the energy weapon continued unabated.

Jack stood up suddenly and raked his hand through his hair, "How much longer?" he enquired his voice little more than a whisper. He looked down to Major Carter who had silent tears coursing down her cheeks in the dim light of the room; even Anise looked shocked, her normally proud face shuttered and closed.

"I am uncertain, but several more hours, at least." Her host Freya answered her voice full of compassion.

"O'Neill, you and Major Carter must go and eat to sustain your strength, I will remain with Anise to watch over the youngster, she will come to no harm, whilst Doctor Frasier is in attendance."

The wise Jaffa looked at his friend's furrowed brow and silently urged his brother in arms to take the proffered way out. He meant no disrespect but he could see that both his teammates were rapidly becoming emotionally overwrought; as he would have been had the subject of these atrocities been Rya'c.

"Ok, Carter lets go," He urged the shocked officer to her feet, "we are going to eat. I do it when I'm hungry, you do it when I tell you, remember now?" He quipped lightly trying to distract her over active brain from the images still relentlessly assaulting his own. He knew with some certainty they would both be hearing the child's cries for help in their nightmares for some time to come.

Back in the dimly lit room, Doctor Frasier looked at her watch and was shocked to discover it was already nearly 22.00 hours. Four hours already, more than enough time to complete the nightmares of all the children she knew combined, but still the images played on.

She looked towards the door, at the brighter light outside and wondered how they would even begin to heal this broken kid, she was little more than a baby yet, really. She looked back in time to just catch the remnant of a frown play across the strong jaffa's face.

Taking his duties seriously, Teal'c had been gazing intently at the screen above the motionless girl's head when for a split second he had thought he recognised a face. Out of the jumble of images currently jostling to present themselves in the child's psyche one image had unexpectedly caught his attention. For a split second he had imagined himself staring into the pale blue eyes of Daniel Jackson.

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Review, Review, Review (Even if you have before, I really like it!)


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer : Don't own anyone, not getting paid , open to offers Mr Greenberg, Sir !

Spoilers: One obvious one for an episode in season 6. Can't elaborate or it will spoil it ! although if you haven't seen it you won't notice so nevermind !

Alpha thanks to the Beta girl ! You know who you are !

A/N Thanks for the continuing reviews .Keep going !Many reviews make me type faster .

**Chapter 10 **

Teal'c continued to stare at the screen for a long time with his head cocked almost imperceptively to one side, his left eyebrow raised slightly and the corners of his mouth turned down.

Had Janet not known him well, she would have found even this minute display on his normally impassive visage startling. Instead her own features mimicked his and she heard herself enquiring, "Did you see something relevant, Teal'c?"

"I do not know," he intoned warily and then as if recollecting what he was doing the corners of his mouth turned up and he replied, "I do not believe it was anything of great importance, Doctor Frasier. Many images flashing in succession can successfully convince the eye it sees something which is not in fact there."

"Trick of the light, Teal'c?" She enquired in an amused tone.

"I believe so." The warrior replied, nodding slightly in her direction.

Janet smiled in a wry fashion; she would never get used to the Jaffa's subtle humour and elegant language but she had grown to love him all the same. She loved his sense of honour and integrity; his respect that once gained was not shaken easily. Equally, it was hard to shift him once he had formed a dislike for someone and she noted now, with some humour, that he had continued to almost completely ignore Anise once his two teammates had left the room.

The screen had continued to display disturbing images of brutal and painful punishment inflicted upon the little girl. The subject slumbered on unaware of the dreamlike memories pouring out of her subconscious. She lay so silent and still that Janet had to keep reminding herself that the child was there at all, and was in fact the focus of _her_ attention.

"It appears that the Scientist's reports were accurate," the jaffa stated into the near silence of the room. "They have indeed attempted to condition O'Neill's child to respond with fear."

"You are correct, Teal'c," the Tok'ra scientist spoke quietly from the shadows, "The records stated that Baal was attempting to break the child's will using conditioned responses before attempting a blending. He wished to see if a compliant host made his mate a more powerful Goa'uld."

"Judging from her earlier behaviour, he failed." Janet stated with a hint of humour.

"That is because she is the child of O'Neill and Major Carter, Doctor Frasier. Their combined tenacity," replied Teal'c.

"And stubbornness!" She interjected.

"Their combined stubbornness and tenacity make her a formidable enemy."

Images of rough-hewn jaffa in armour, escorting her towards a ship appeared, and there continued to be a succession of the fearsome warriors in her memories for some time. Some teaching, some training, and some minor punishment but mostly blunt tenderness in the midst of the Goa'uld's continual cruelty.

Teal'c's heart swelled with pride in his race, as he saw how the warriors had continued to avoid causing her pain wherever possible.

"She had found a place in the hearts of these warriors," he said. "They have sought only to offer her loving reproof, to correct her somewhat errant behaviour."

"Hmmm," the Doctor sighed. " I for one am glad that we weren't around for that tantrum!" The doctor gestured towards the screen from which stern jaffa faces frowned, their words drowned out by the now familiar torrent of angry shrieking. Looking down at her sleeping charge it seemed almost impossible that the angel before her could be so much trouble, but the doctor had been at the receiving end of two similar tantrums in the last twenty-four hours and knew there would be more.

"It is clear where she learnt her command of goa'uld invective, Doctor Frasier," Teal'c mused, a forbidding expression on his face.

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Up in the observation room, Jacob had shrugged and offered a small smile to General Hammond.

"I'd suggest washing her mouth out with soap, but I don't think Sam would have it, George." He said lightly attempting to lighten some of the heavy mood that had descended within the small room.

His old friend chuckled quietly recalling some of Jacob's battles with his own children. "Did you try that one, Jacob?"

"No need, Sam was a good kid, in the main," the tok'ra replied turning towards his former comrade.

"Oh, how age dulls the memory!" The general laughed and mock scowled admonishing his friend, "Jacob, I lived two doors away from you, remember? I could easily hear you yelling from there."

Inside his mind Selmak chortled, '_your old friend knows you well, Jacob, it pains me to see you attempt to deceive yourself!'_

'Harrumph!' he snorted internally, the outrage showing plainly across his face.

"Sorry, Jacob I couldn't resist. It's not often I get the opportunity to tease you is it?" Hammond smiled, his eyes crinkling up with laughter lines.

"Yes well, I think I'll head up and see how Sam and Jack are doing." Jacob stood and walked towards the door smiling to himself.

'_Hmmm. Sam and Jack, in the same phrase. When did you come round to my way of thinking, Jacob!' _Selmak quipped sarcastically. This type of humour had become second nature since he had blended with this host, and he wondered how he had survived the preceding centuries without ever resorting to dry humour before.

Jacob's face fell; 'Shut up!' was his only reply.

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At this late hour, the commissary was empty except for a couple of members of catering staff and the two military members of SG-1.

They had chosen to sit at their usual table as it had been available, and after several halting attempts to begin a conversation, they had settled into a companionable silence.

Sam sat back suddenly and put down her cutlery with a sigh. Jack slowly looked up, his fork halfway to his mouth "You finished?" He asked carefully, glancing down, his eyebrows gathering in a puzzled frown at her plate of food, barely touched. Her face was pale and she looked close to exhaustion; Jack closed his eyes momentarily and tried to control his rising exasperation.

"Not hungry," she said in a small voice raising her eyes uncertainly to his face.

"Sam," the colonel stated gently, "you have to eat!"

He gesticulated at her with his fork, " and please don't insult me by saying you had lunch cos I know for a fact that you didn't." He paused dramatically raising his eyebrows, daring her to refute his statement but she couldn't.

"I could try dessert." She wheedled flashing him a killer smile.

Jack just shook his head in wonder; "Carter, a balanced diet doesn't consist of just blue jello and coffee in equal amounts!"

She shovelled in a few cubes from the glass and waved, her attention drawn to a spot over his left shoulder. The colonel twisted in his seat and saw Jacob approaching the table wearing a formidable scowl. His heart plummeted, as he saw the older man's expression and he offered up a silent prayer to any God with his ears on, that he wasn't the cause of his current black looks.

"Have a seat Dad," she said through a mouthful of blue goo.

"How's it going down there Jake?" Jack asked tentatively still not sure if he was the cause of the older man's mood.

"Still going," he said and suddenly his face softened into a smile.

"She knows some interesting terms in Goa'uld, Jack " Jacob chuckled and narrowed his eyes in an accusatory glare but the fact that colonel O'Neill didn't understand any goa'uld and probably never would, soon had the corners of his mouth turning upwards in a grin.

"Erm, yes, we'll have to work on that. Any sign of a name to put to the face?" His daughter's companion replied still somewhat unsure of his current status in the tok'ra's books.

"Nothing but honoured host so far," the Tok'ra mused his face changing to a study in complete disgust as he recalled the behaviour of the goa'uld who had mistreated her. '_One day, Selmak, He is going to suffer a horrible fate,' _he mused to the symbiote in his mind. His mental companion was already reeling off ancient and terrible forms of torture they could attempt should the opportunity present itself.

Their private conversation was truncated by the ringing of a cell phone.

Sam reached for her pocket at the first signs of the insistent buzzing of the cell phone.

"No, its mine, Carter." Colonel O'Neill pulled a compact black phone from his uniform combat pants and flipped it open with a flourish that caused the older man to smirk.

"O'Neill," he snapped into the receiver, his features hardening as he listened with intense concentration for a couple of seconds before abruptly standing up and walking out into the hallway.

"What was that about?" Jacob wondered aloud, peering over his shoulder towards the still swinging door.

"Dunno," his daughter stated suddenly exposed to the full glare of her father's scrutiny.

"Sooo, how are you doing in all of this, Sam?" The older man asked leaning forward and taking her hand tenderly across the table.

"Fine," she hedged looking down at their hands.

"So less than forty –eight hours ago we brought back a kid who genetically at least is yours and the colonels, and you've just watched her being tortured on 'widescreen' but you're fine. My what a super soldier you are," Jacob railed at his daughter in mild reproof.

"Ok, Ok." The younger Carter sighed, "I'm just not sure how I feel right now. I mean yesterday I was a scientist, an air force Major, and the colonel's second in command." She paused and looked away before continuing in a hollow voice, "and today I'm in Iso room three watching a kid tortured by the goa'uld and the kid is mine," her voice faltered and when it returned it was barely a whisper. "…mine and the colonel's."

"Whatcha decided to do?" Jacob asked carefully, inwardly fearing the answer he knew he was going to receive. He had known as soon as he had seen his daughter in the gateroom, and the proximity to her that the colonel had placed himself, exactly where their paths were headed.

"We're going to keep her."

"We?"

That one word in all she had spoken declared volumes to her father about Sam's choices for the future. It didn't come as any great surprise; he was her dad after all. He had been able to see the direction the river was flowing a while back. However he had taken Selmak's advice and kept his opinions to himself, now he wondered whether he had been wise.

It wasn't that he didn't like Jack, though he would never let on, he had grown to love the smartass but he was much older than his precious daughter and Jacob knew enough about special ops guys to realise he'd been round the block a bit.

"WE!" Sam repeated meeting her father's stare head on.

She would have rather not have had this discussion until she had a litany of good reasons why Jack was a decent guy, and her life was her own etc, etc. However it had come up, and she knew what she wanted. Her life was her own but she wanted, and needed her father's support now more than ever, but if he disagreed with her choice, well, that was just too bad. Samantha Carter had seen the future and she was going to have it.

They both gazed at one another for what seemed to each of them like an eternity frozen in time and then, prompted by Selmak's loud insistence that his daughter's regard was worth more that his pride, Jacob looked away.

"Right," That one word in Sam's eyes was tantamount to a blessing to marry.

"I can't do it without him dad." She whispered drawing her father's eyes back to hers. The blue eyes swam with tears of emotion, overcome by the events of the last couple of days.

"I won't do it without him." She corrected herself, just as the man in question made a timely appearance through the door. She swiftly swiped an escaping tear away and plastered a smile on her face.

"Ok, Major I think we should return to the slide show and take the next shift," Jack quipped upon his return, a swift frown darkening his deep brown eyes. He glanced minutely at Jacob and back to hold her gaze, in a silent inquisition, but with an imperceptible shake of the head, she flashed him a brilliant smile to set his mind at rest.

"Dad, you coming?"

"No, I thought I'd grab a bite to eat and then get my head down."

"Ok," Sam leaned forward as she stood and kissed him swiftly, "We'll catch you later." She moved from behind the table and the colonel stepped back and gestured for her to precede him.

"After you, Major," he said politely and they walked together out through the swinging doors.

'Why him Selmak?' Jacob sighed, 'She could have anyone, why him?'

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Some hours later, the dreams had become less violent and began to contain more innocuous things. Colonel O'Neill watched as she played a jaffa game of 'hide and go seek'. Teal'c assured him that it was a training exercise designed to sharpen a warrior's ability to evade his enemy but it looked like a game to him. Suddenly the dream morphed and the two men sat forward abruptly, as Jonas and Teal'c came in to view, several feet away slightly obscured by long grass and the leaves of a shrub.

"Sure put those skills to use on you buddy." The colonel smirked.

"Indeed," His friend returned softly, the ghost of smile on his lips.

Carter had fallen asleep some hours before, her head resting on her arms as she leant on the end of the little girl's bed. Just after this he had instructed Doctor Frasier to send along a nurse to sit with them, and suggested she get some 'shut eye' too. She had agreed readily, her reasoning that it was unlikely that the child would suffer any ill effects so many hours after the process had begun. She also had reasoned to herself that when the child awakened the following day she might have an unforeseen reaction then, and she wanted to be fully alert in case of that. So, after topping up the sedative and needlessly reminding the nurse she was merely down the hall, she retired to her quarters.

Jacob and Selmak had relieved Anise at about three o'clock and Teal'c began to Kelnoreem unobtrusively in the shadows by the doorway.

Jack stretched in his plastic regulation infirmary chair and stood up, his knees popping as he did. The older smiled and raised his eyebrows.

"Just don't say it," Jack started when his attention was diverted. The screen had subtly changed and now showed a mixture of green and black, soft whimpering could be heard, causing the nurse to look sharply at the sleeping child before once again relaxing. A small hand came into view and curled round fabric, part of a green military issue BDU shirt and over the persistent sobbing came the unmistakeable sound of the his own voice.

He gazed stricken, lost as two memories now played in his mind. The first his newly discovered daughter, still nameless, the next his son, Charlie, similar behaviour binding two children together, in a way that reality and untimely death never could.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he never heard the older man approach. Jacob placed his hand on the younger man's shoulder.

"You love her already, don't you Jack."

"Yeah. Never thought I'd get another try." He said his voice full of wonder as he gazed at the screen.

"You'll do fine." Jacob stated confidently giving Jack's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"I dunno," the colonel said thoroughly unconvinced, "It isn't gonna be easy. I dunno if she'll recover from all of that." He gestured towards the screen.

"You both love her," Jacob said indicating the sleeping form of his daughter at the end of the bed, "That's all she'll need."

"Thanks Jake." The colonel murmured as once again the scene changed on the screen before him; a dark grey gloom, with only the sound of soft breaths and the distant clang of jaffa armour receding in the distance.

"I'm going to turn this off now and remove the device, Jack. I think we've learnt all we're going to." The Tok'ra operative moved towards the child's bedside.

Goa'uld words, the child's words could be heard penetrating the gloom on the screen.

'_Am I alone?' _

As Jack watched he had a sense of her head turning, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as if someone were watching him. The sense of a reply, merely an unintelligible murmur and then a pair of clear blue eyes emerged from the inky blackness and a voice he knew well.

'_Tal'mate Daniel.'_

The screen retracted in mid air, seeming to roll itself away neatly. Jack stood open mouthed for a long time as Jacob removed with device deftly, nodding at the nurse to deal with the single drop of the child's bright red blood it's withdrawal had caused. Then the colonel shook his head in wry amusement, as though suddenly unconvinced by what his own eyes had seen and attempted to rouse Sam. She wakened unsure of her immediate surroundings and nodding a quick goodnight to her father allowed the colonel to steer her towards her quarters. On the way she listened sleepily as the colonel informed her he would be returning to his home that morning and that he intended to return some time before nightfall. She wrinkled her nose perplexedly, but he didn't elaborate, simply telling her he an important matter to attend to and it couldn't be avoided.

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The colonel had intended to settle down in his favourite armchair to rest for a few moments, however after waking up several hours later he realised that he had been much closer to exhaustion than he had supposed. Glancing at his watch he blearily read that the time had reached eleven thirty and the accompanying growl in his stomach reminded him that he had neglected to eat breakfast.

He looked at his cell phone wondering if he had slept through the call but there had been nothing. Jack scowled and wondered if his trip home had been a waste of time, but he'd said it was important and he owed him at least until the evening to make an appearance. He showered quickly, changed into some comfortable clothes and shrugging on a fleece sweater he turned on the gas to his outdoor grill.

The Colonel was returning to the deck in his yard to make one final turn of the hotdogs he was cooking for his dinner when, with a start, he realised there was one missing. Looking around carefully Jack's eyes rested upon a familiar face, leaning nonchalantly against the far railing of his decking.

"I helped myself, I hope you don't mind?" rasped the sarcastic tones of thoroughly ex-colonel Maybourne.

"You're eating my dog!" O'Neill whined back irritably, not surprised to see the man but at the sudden nature of his appearance.

"You want it back?" The former NID operative spoke through a mouthful of food as Jack resigned to the conversation that would inevitably now take place, sighed.

"You want a beer to wash it down."

"Already got one."

A/N ok , paradise lost ! Review, review or the laptop gets it !


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: not mine sad but true! 

Spoilers: none specifically

A/N: The beta chick is currently offline being upgraded. (Armband so she reads real quick Ya Know!) So all of the mistakes are mine. Flames will be met with public humiliation ! MWHAHAHAHAHAHA! You have been warned.

Seriously I love reviews I try to write back to anyone who emails so you got any questions drop me a line. 

One last point. Sorry guys, I can't go any faster; I have a job, 3 cats (Mine is called Jack, 'Smirk!') 2 kids (one with an autistic condition) and a house full to the brim with ironing. You people out there whose significant others think they are an sg1 widow/er will know where I am coming from. Will try to make it quality when it does come though that's a fair trade off isn't it?

Chapter 11

Sam blinked wearily and then her tired brain registered that the phone in her quarters was ringing. She threw off the blankets and staggered unsteadily towards the phone, her mind still fogged by lack of sleep.

One mass effort of coordination later she snatched up the receiver, "Carter," she began in a surprisingly croaky whisper.

"Sam?" Doctor Frasier enquired, concern evident in her voice.

Major Carter cleared her throat, and turned her face back to the receiver.

"Yeah Janet, I'm fine. Just not quite awake yet. What time is it?" She paused to glance about for the location of her watch, finding it momentarily still fastened on her wrist.

"O O Early," said her friend sarcastically as the major read seven fifteen on the display.

"Lack of sleep sure makes you a happy person to chat to, Doctor," Sam replied in a passable imitation of her friend's earlier tone.

"Yeah, well. She's awake," Janet's voice muted and she could identify the dulcet tones of her newly discovered daughter screaming even through the steel door, that her friend had obviously held the receiver towards.

"I could do with a hand here Sam." Janet began her extreme exasperation evident in her voice. "Teal'c and Jonas are on the way but I can't seem to raise the colonel."

"No, he's off the base, " Sam interrupted, "He had to go and take care of something, said it couldn't be avoided."

"Hmmm, I can't see what could possibly take precedence over this, but …"

"I will be there in Five, Jan." Sam cut her friend off before she could establish her stride, replacing the receiver and scrubbing her hands through her hair with a sigh. 'A shower will have to wait' she thought sadly.

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Exiting the elevator she had expected to hear the child in full song but instead there was an eerie silence. Quickening her pace she began to jog towards the isolation room, fear clutching at her insides. She was diverted by the SF at the door; who informed her that Doctor Frasier had requested her attendance in the observation room.

Doctor Frasier met her with a tense smile and nodded towards the two-way mirror. Below her in the isolation room, the child was out of bed and standing flattened against the wall. Teal'c was standing in the middle of the room; his arms folded behind his back an indulgent smile gracing his normally impassive features.

Sam shot an inquiring glance in the direction of her friend, who shrugged her shoulders.

"The only intelligible phrase of goa'uld I could make out was 'Kree Jaffa', so against my better judgement I let Teal'c go in," she glanced at Sam and half smiled apologetically. Sam smiled back in acquiescence; they all trusted Teal'c implicitly.

"She stopped screaming a moment ago as he arrived and they have been standing like this ever since."

At precisely that moment, as though sensing Major Carter's arrival Teal'c executed a small bow, his eyes never leaving the terrified child's face.

"Tec'ma'te"(Hello)

The child's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Tal'mac Teal'c"(My name is Teal'c)

There was a brief silence then the little girl seemed to relax slightly and in a quiet voice said, "Tal'mac Hannah."

"Well I never," Janet exclaimed looking in astonishment at Sam.

"Hannah," Carter repeated carefully as though testing the name on her tongue.

"Who?" Her father said appearing beside her, his brow furrowed as he struggled to put a face to the name.

"Hannah," his daughter reiterated and gestured towards the glass and the pyjama clad figure within.

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Hannah sat down on the edge of the bed as the imposing jaffa had suggested but she was far from happy, her head hurt, her arm hurt where the red haired woman had jabbed her with the sharp silver things and she wanted to go home. She didn't want to talk to anyone but they weren't going to leave her alone and she figured this jaffa was the best chance she had of getting some answers. At least answers she could understand.

"Where am I?" She scowled at the jaffa.

"You are amongst the Tau'ri ;on the planet known as Earth." She raised her eyebrows at that, recalling the slave woman who had called her 'Tau'ri scum'.

"I am one of these Tau'ri?" She enquired with more than a hint of deductive reasoning. The child's eyes lit up as she worked out the answers to the question herself and Teal'c was instantly reminded of the sharp intelligence of her mother seated nearby on the other side of the glass.

"Indeed you are Hannah O'Neill," he stated with a smile and a slight bow of his head.

"Tal mal'tiak mal we'ai."(I am honoured.)

With this innocuous statement she laughed slightly, her eyes sparkling, then as though some other more pertinent thought had pulled her back to the present she frowned.

"Why did you call me 'Hannah O'Neill?"

"It is entirely appropriate as that is your name." Teal'c responded carefully taking note of her reactions. Seeing confusion deepening he added smoothly.

"Amongst the Tau'ri, children can have several names but always end with the family name of their father. As your father's family name is O'Neill that name will also belong to you now, as is your right."

"Hannah O'Neill," she mused momentarily before her thoughts returned unbidden to her situation.

'What's a father? Maybe it's a like Master, or host or slave. Perhaps I do belong to someone. Maybe I won't be sold to the mines like that slave said if I was caught running away again. I don't want to work in a mine. I wonder what a mine is. I like _him_ better now he isn't yelling at me. I hope they won't hurt me with the tiny knives again. I want to go home.'

"Do you require sustenance, Hannah O'Neill?" The Jaffa enquired breaking into her thoughts once more.

"No, I am instructed if I fall into the hands of the enemy to refuse, if the master was to rescue me well fed he would be extremely displeased." She offered him a small smile of regret, lay down and turned her back on him.

"You may leave now, Jaffa." She reasoned that as he had been so nice she couldn't very well address him as 'shol'va' but equally she no longer wished to talk to him. She closed her eyes as pain and fatigue washed over her once more and before he had left the room, she was asleep.

Sliding back the heavy metal door, Teal'c was greeted by the anxious faces of his teammates and Doctor Frasier, the base CMO.

"Hannah O'Neill is asleep once more." The tall warrior informed them all, with a slight bow.

"What was that about Baal? I was able to make out the goa'uld for 'Master' but nothing else," Jonas enquired his eyes alight with interest.

Teal'c's face morphed into a grimace of considerable distaste.

"The child does not wish us to supply her with sustenance. She chooses to cling to the hope that the 'False god' will attempt to redeem her. She would choose death rather than live as the prisoner of his enemies." He finished with a flourish and a poignantly raised eyebrow.

The colour drained from Major Carter's features, "What?" she enquired incredulously turning to her friend.

"She hasn't eaten for two days she must be starving. Janet you've got to do something or she'll.." concern for the child filled her voice and was etched onto her features.

"My experience of the young has been that they will eat when they desire to do so." Teal'c reassured her.

"We must simply wait until her desire becomes great enough."

Janet smiled at the imposing jaffa and nodded in agreement, "Let's leave her sleeping for now, the sedative is still wearing off and the alternative treatment I prescribed will not take full effect for several hours. You aren't waiting for a god Sam so you need breakfast even if she doesn't"

"Ok," Sam nodded to Jonas who had just arrived and was already reaching for the door, his coffee, a banana and a sheaf of papers in his hand. He stepped through the doorway, and settled into a chair near the door ready to ensure a familiar face greeted her when she awakened..

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"So what's this alternative treatment you've prescribed for Hannah, Janet?" Sam enquired replacing her coffee cup on the table they had taken in the commissary.

"Well, you know I decided to filter her blood through a dialysis machine yesterday?" the doctor began by way of introduction.

"It appears judging by the blood work from last night that it was very successful and some of the naquadah was removed, probably that which was being caused by the nano tech devices breaking down within her. Mostly what remains is that which she inherited as her genetic makeup with some minor excess, which will be diluted in her system as she grows." She paused and took a slurp of her coffee.

"So she will have lower levels of naquadah than me by the time she reaches maturity?" Sam asked hopefully conscious of the difficulties her unique physiology caused her.

"Probably not, by the time you factor in her levels remaining significantly higher even now, but I guess we will see." Sam's friend replied, knowing that as her mother feared, Hannah would probably spend all her life under the medical care of the SGC.

Janet took a deep breath and launched into the next phase of her explanation, " So, to countermand the remainder of the naquadah and hopefully minimise her violent outbursts I injected her with a low dose of Ritalin."

"Ritalin? Don't they give that to hyperactive kids?" Carter enquired carefully.

"Yes, but mainly to dial down the more impulsive tendencies of attention deficit disorders." Janet replied in a matter of fact tone.

"The drug gained a lot of bad press due to it's high profile over prescription in recent years but in this instance I believe it may be the short to medium term solution to getting you in the front door so to speak with your daughter, Sam." The doctor in Janet spoke earnestly to the parent in her friend.

Sam stared into her coffee, and silently wished that Jack had been here with her. He at least had some experience with kids. She nodded at her friend, hoping that the colonel would see things in the same light, and her mind wandered back to the isolation room and the sleeping child.

Janet turned to answer a question for the jaffa across the table and Sam's mind subconsciously travelled back to the images on the screen she had witnessed the previous night. With a little shiver she recalled the icy voice of the goa'uld, Baal and suddenly Sam knew without a doubt that whatever the colonel had reported; the torture he had endured whilst in the alien's custody had been horrific. Carter gave herself a mental shake and refocused her attention on the diminutive woman across from her, realising the discussion had turned to the child's immediate future she smiled.

"General Hammond is contacting the president today about the 'Hannah situation' and providing the colonel returns early enough we should be able to work out a short term plan today, Janet."

"I don't want you to get your hopes up yet Sam," Doctor Frasier said with a slight frown. "She's got a way to go before anyone can take her home."

"Indeed," Her jaffa friend said with a slight smile, "Indeed."

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After leaving his daughter and her co-workers in the hallway, Jacob had walked smartly to his old friend, General Hammond's office and knocked on the door. He wondered if he should even be there, guiltily he opened the door before he was asked and peeked around the door.

"Yes Sir, I will sir. I'll get it there right away." The base commander waved him in and gestured towards an empty chair while he finished his call.

"Thank you Sir, yes, Good bye sir." He replaced the receiver of the red phone and sighed wearily before raising his eyes to the Tok'ra, reclining in his office chair.

"The president," George stated in response to Jacob's raised eyebrow."

"Of the U S of A? Gee!" His friend retorted sarcastically, no longer intimidated by the office after the preceding few years of his interstellar travels.

General Hammond chuckled and shook his head in despair.

"Jacob, what do you want?" He enquired good-humouredly, and then frowned in a mirrored response to his friend's.

"It's about Sam," He said and paused dramatically, "And Jack."

"Jac…" His friend began rising from his seat.

"The child needs two parents and _they _need one another George." Jacob interrupted waving the startled General back down.

"You know it, I know it! Hell! The whole damn base knows it." He gestured expansively his frustration showing in his tense movements.

"Jacob," Hammond began again, more forcefully.

"God damn it, George! The Goa'uld know it! Do you think he wouldn't have used the kid to get at them?"

"JACOB, IF I could just finish." The tok'ra sat in his chair again wincing at the General's tone, inwardly Selmak was laughing.

'_Jacob, she chided, you really need to develop those listening skills, you're going to give him a heart attack.'_

"I'm working on something, you just need to trust me." Hammond began carefully.

"OK." The tok'ra smiled and waited clearly expecting his friend to elaborate but before the general could add words to his expansive hand gesture towards the door that had signalled Jacob's exit, a brilliant white light demanded their attention and Thor materialised in the office.

"Ah, Thor." The General stated clearly taken unawares, his features draining of their colour.

"General Hammond," The grey alien fixed the two men in his flat unblinking gaze.

"I received a message requesting my assistance. What can the Asgard High Council assist you with?"

The general turned and looked at the tok'ra, who simply folded his arms and settled back into his chair, clearly going nowhere.

Sighing General Hammond filled the Asgard Commander in about the events of the preceding few days. The intelligent alien had nodded his head and asked a few pertinent questions.

"So in fact, this child is the product of the combined DNA of Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter and you believe she was genetically engineered by the goa'uld Baal?"

"Yes." Hammond replied evenly.

"Colonel O'Neill is not within this facility presently." Thor stated knowledgeably, reminding Jacob inadvertently that the Asgard were a vastly more developed race. General Hammond simply nodded and frowned.

"His life signs were not detected amongst those of your command when we arrived." The diminutive alien explained.

"Would you like me to transport the child aboard our ship and try to determine what has been done to manipulate her at a genetic level using our medical facilities?" He continued.

"Yes, but that wasn't my primary reason for asking you here today, Commander Thor, I believe you may be able to help me with another problem." Hammond stated smiling conspiratorially towards Jacob.

"Ahh, I see, very clever, George." His retired friend smirked finally catching on.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Jonas, everything ok inhere?" Janet enquired looking uncertainly through the door of the isolation room with Major Carter open mouthed with shock at her side.

The sight that greeted her left her almost speechless; Jonas was sitting on the bed, his back leaning against the headrest cushioned with pillows, his boots off. Situated comfortably on his lap was the child who just before breakfast had been screaming the base down; smiling and engrossed in a large picture book, which the young kelownan held between his hands.

Jonas grinned over at them and carefully handing the book to the now darkly scowling girl, he extracted himself from his comfortable position and jogged over in his socks to the amazed officers.

"Captain Bradley from SG-9 dropped by with a box of toys and books. He said his daughters had grown out of them now, and that Hannah might like them, so when she woke up, we were introduced and now we're looking at one together."

A light blush stole across the young man's cheeks, as he became uncertain that the nature of his actions were correct. He gestured behind him towards the child, who was once more engrossed in the book.

"I know she speaks goa'uld but she understands everything that I am saying, she really is very smart," He enthused beaming widely at the now crestfallen Major. His face fell suddenly as he realised she didn't share his sentiments entirely.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interfere, Sam. Perhaps you should go over and talk to her and I should go." Jonas laid his hand on Sam's arm in the manner of an apology sensing her disquiet at the dramatic change in the girl in her absence.

"Why don't we both go over?" Sam suggested carefully, unsure of her reception considering the child's previous extreme reactions.

"No time like the present Sam." Doctor Frasier said smiling reassuring and gently urged her friend across the room.

Sam approached the girl slowly, smiling brightly and stopped at the end of the bed.

"Hello Hannah," She grinned as the girl failed to even look up from the book she was poring over. Sam moved around the bedstead and sat down carefully; nearby but not touching the child. The girl stiffened and looked up but didn't move away.

"Whatcha looking at?" Sam enquired curiously, leaning round to look at the cover of the picture book in the child's hands.

"Oh, one thousand and one words, very nice Hannah." The child jerked up and two pairs of curious blue eyes measured one another in the ensuing silence.

"Hannah." The girl stated confidently pointing to herself.

"Jonas," She continued; pointing to the owner of the name still standing nearby. The child turned her blue eyes back to Sam narrowing her gaze she pointed at her and waited.

Sam realising that the child wanted a name to put with her face, glanced in a panicked fashion at Janet.

"Erm," She panicked and glanced uncertainly at her friend unsure of what name to go for. Janet smiled, raised her eyebrows, and silently urged her on.

"Mommy." Carter exhaled the word rapidly then smiled. " I'm your mommy."

The huge blue eyes smiled in return and pointed again.

"Mommee?" Hannah giggled; it seemed a funny name for a pretty lady.

"Yes," Sam giggled along with the child slightly unsure of what was funny.

" Now what've we got here? Oh a tree." She said saying the word carefully and pointing at the photograph in the book. The child grinned and said an unintelligible word in goa'uld.

"Tree." Sam repeated and then pointed at the girl. "Now you, Tree."

"Tree?" The child turned to Jonas and gabbled a long sentence in goa'uld. He shook his head slightly and the child rolled her eyes at him exasperatedly and sighed.

"I figured it would be a great way for us each to learn a new language but she is much quicker than I am." Jonas admitted ruefully.

The three of them sat on the bed and looked at pictures in the book while Janet returned to the infirmary to deal with the mornings round of scheduled and unscheduled patients. Later in the morning, Sam selected a book of fairy stories and read to the little girl who couldn't understand the words but soon became immersed in the pictured of castles and dragons and princesses.

At midday, they tried to coax her to eat with a sandwich, and some fruit but she stalwartly refused. Seeing that the child had reached the verge of a monster tantrum, with flushed cheeks, teary eyes and quivering lower lip, Sam decided to settle for the half glass of milk the child had consumed.

"Did you get her to eat anything?" Janet asked returning from her medical duties and she placed her hand on the now rapidly tiring child's head.

"No, she wouldn't eat anything." Jonas sighed. "That I did get; it was a definite 'Noc'" He smiled at the doctor's grimacing expression.

The child's eyes glanced away and a guilty blush rose in her pale cheeks. She knew the Tau'ri grown-up ups were talking about her refusal to eat, she felt ashamed and confused. It was gradually becoming obvious that these people who had 'stolen her' didn't intend to harm her. In fact, barring the sharp needles, no one had hurt her since her arrival; slung over the tall man's shoulder. She wondered suddenly why he hadn't been to see her and then scowled, remembering that 'he didn't want her' and so she didn't want him. 'The master will come for me' she thought stifling a huge yawn.

Strangely her next thought was that the big man who'd taken her would stop him and she felt one more knot in her stomach slowly unwind. Her eyes gently began to slide closed and she quickly jerked awake as she felt her head lean against someone else's arm.

The beautiful lady called 'Mommee' gently took the book from her and urged her to

lie down in the covers again. Stifling another huge yawn, Hannah fought to keep her eyes open but the rhythmic stoking of the lady's hand on her hair and the soothing stream of low words that she spoke soon worked their magic.

The little girl's breathing soon slowed and deepened indicating that she was sound asleep. Janet carefully took her temperature with an ear thermometer smiling as it showed a normal reading after the beep. Sam tucked the blankets around the child and kissed her gently on the forehead.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Janet enquired.

"The medication seems to be working, she only frowned for a minute and then she seemed fine." Sam replied smiling in some relief, her fears of immediate rejection allayed.

"There is still a healthy amount of sedative in the mix so we may hit a few problems yet. Plus we still have to figure out how to get her to eat!" The Doctor admitted gently placing her hand on Sam's arm and steering her out of the room. She nodded to the nurse in the room indicating for her to stay with the child whilst they were gone.

Sam stepped through the doorway and out in to the corridor waiting whilst Janet pulled the metal door closed to muffle the base noises and reduce the noise of any alarms. She glanced up at the sound of heavy footsteps advancing up the corridor, and smiled when she realised it was her commanding officer.

The smile swiftly faded as she noted that his face was almost white with fury, and his hands were tightly balled fists at his sides. Carter tensed automatically, silently wondering what could have happened to cause his darkened mood. The colonel strode up, his eyes flashed and she registered with shock that the most immediate source of his anger was her.

"Why?" He ground out as he grabbed her painfully by the upper arm and propelled her away from the doctor and out of earshot of the SF guard.

"Wwwhat?" Sam stuttered in shock her hand rising to grab ineffectively at the hand holding her in its bruising grip as she tried to twist out of his grasp.

"Why, Carter, Why?" He hissed desperately trying to keep his temper and the rising volume of his words under control. Speechless with fear Sam turned her pain filled eyes towards the doctor who had begun to follow.

"Colonel." Doctor Frasier barked and advanced towards the pair.

"Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?" O'Neill shook her, her eyes widened in shock as his whispered words registered in her overloaded brain.

"What?" She simply couldn't take in the words he had spoken. 'Pregnant? When?' she thought, her confusion blazing a trail across her terrified features. She looked towards her friend silently pleading for assistance.

"Last year, when you were kidnapped." He stated quite vehemently but a little cloud of doubt had appeared on the horizon of his mind.

"Wwwwwhat?" Carter stuttered again looking at Janet in horror.

"Oh my God!" Janet whispered clamping a hand over her mouth.

Jack felt rather than saw the shudder of horror run through the woman he still firmly held against the wall, she turned her horrified eyes back to his face and fainted. The colonel caught her deftly as she slumped, all thoughts of his anger gone, his face stricken.

"Bring her to the infirmary." The diminutive doctor ordered, her face grim as she marched past him without a second glance.

"Sam, I'm sorry." He said in a strangled whisper as he lifted her into his arms. "I'm so sorry."

A/N: hope you're enjoying it so far Tee Hee. review review review.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: **Not mine so don't sue! Pleasssee!

A/N Sooo sorry it's been a while. Hope it was worth it! My thanks as ever to stargate-fan for the beta work! You're worth it! Please keep reviewing it makes me really happy !

Chapter 12 

Colonel O'Neill sighed wearily and ran his hands through his cropped silver hair. A low sound from the adjacent room infiltrated his thoughts and he glanced up from the smooth metallic floor he had been staring at. His eyes tracked around the room in the Asgard ship in which he was corralled. Their movement minimal and controlled as he coolly perused his surroundings; barely betraying the inner churning of his mind. He winced as a particularly painful thought returned to him.

Carter.

He had no more than arrived in the infirmary, with her in his arms in a dead faint, and given the doctor a hasty summary of the facts as they had been explained to him then he had been called to the General's office. Certain that his seemingly inexplicable behaviour had somehow come to the older man's attention he had steeled himself for a dressing down and a swift journey to a holding cell. Do not pass go, do not collect…

Jack had been shocked to find that Hammond had company; _Alien _Company. He had fought to control his features, anxious not to betray the overwhelming relief that his confrontation with Major Carter had not been reported as yet.

"Thor! What are you doing here buddy?" _Resort to humour -deflect attention_.

"General Hammond has requested that the Asgard render assistance in determining whether the genetic experimentation undertaken by the goa'uld 'Baal', has resulted in a stable life form."

As all the colour leeched out of the colonel's face, General Hammond cleared his throat drawing attention to the fact that in his astonishment the younger man had failed as yet to even acknowledge him.

"Good afternoon, Colonel." He stated evenly, an expression of mild amusement on his face.

"Yes?" The younger man replied, and then hastily began again.

"Sir, Yes Sir, er reporting as ordered, General Hammond, Sir." He attempted a hasty salute but in the freefall panic now setting in, it came off half-assed.

"At ease, Colonel." General Hammond chuckled and gestured him towards a chair in front of his desk.

"As Thor has already explained, I asked the Asgard if they would use their more advanced facilities and superior technological knowledge to assist us in ascertaining if Hannah…"

"Hannah?" The Colonel's features betrayed his confusion.

"Ah yes! You've only just arrived on the base so you won't have been appraised of this morning's developments." The General smiled broadly at Colonel O'Neill.

"Your daughter decided to talk to us today; to Teal'c in fact and she introduced herself to him as 'Hannah'."

"Hannah." The younger man repeated as a slow grin spread across his face, his earlier fears melting away in the face of this significant step forward.

"I like the sound of that, Sir," Jack said quietly.

"She has spent a busy morning interacting with Jonas and Major Carter in Iso room three. I believe she has been enjoying several picture books."

Jack was nearly incredulous, the difference a day could make with a child was something he had always found a mystery. One day she was sedated and immobilized in medical restraints and the next chatting happily and reading picture books with his team mates and he had missed it. Life just always seemed to want to kick him when he was down.

"The only fly in the ointment is that she is still refusing to eat anything; in case Baal comes to rescue her." The older man stated with a tiny shake of his head.

"What?" The colonel asked with surprise. "Still not eating after _two_ days?"

"Seems to have a stubborn streak, like one or two others I know." The General laughed.

"Hmmm, Well I guess we'll have to sort that out before the end of the day, Sir." The Colonel retorted with a smile, confident in his skills with kids and the knowledge that she was about to butt heads with the most stubborn man in the air force. He knew just what to tempt a hungry little girl with and he knew she would give in, eventually.

"Well, I'm sure Doctor Frasier would appreciate your help, Jack. I know she is running out of ideas."

Jack wasn't sure that after his outburst in the hallway, Janet would want his help…. Ever. However his features displayed none of his inner concerns.

"General I have another matter that I need to discuss with you." The colonel interjected.

"You can get to that later, right now Thor is going to transport Hannah aboard his ship and I felt sure you would wish to accompany her in case she awakens during the medical procedures, Colonel." The General continued smoothly not allowing any opportunity for an argument about this latest development.

The Colonel nodded and moments later he found himself in the centre of the Asgard medical bay.

Hannah lay sleeping on her side in a medical pod. She looked different somehow, even since yesterday. Her blonde hair had been washed and pulled into two low pigtails which were rapidly working loose allowing wispy tendrils of hair to sweep across her face and curl around her neck.

Her thumb was firmly pushed into her mouth, although she was no longer sucking it, her soft pink lips curving gently round the edge of it displaying her shiny white teeth. The little girl's other hand was folded under her chin and the Colonel was disarmed by how small and defenceless she appeared in her sleep, a whole world away from either the screaming hellion of two days before or the tortured soul displayed on the memory screen the previous evening.

He walked over but before he could stretch out his hand to push the stray hairs from her eyes, the Asgard scientist who was there with him started to speak.

"The child is asleep, a condition which we will attempt to continue if at all possible until our test are completed. If you touch her she will awaken." The grey eyes held O'Neill's brown ones without blinking and then he continued.

"If you would care to move into the adjoining area, we have provided you with a chair to wait upon."

"Er ok." O'Neill said suddenly feeling uncomfortable. With one long last glance at his daughter's sleeping form he made a graceful retreat and there he had remained, periodically pacing to the doorway and watching the Asgard scientists doing their tests and talking to one another in the low tones of their mother tongue.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Doctor Frasier had shooed the medical staff out of the side room in which her friend Major Samantha Carter sat in stunned silence. Sam had been that way since she had regained consciousness after passing out in the hallway. Taking a deep breath she closed the door and walked briskly, her heels clip clipping on the hard floor, over to the edge of the bed and gently placed her hand on the Major's arm.

"Sam?" She enquired in a low voice attempting not to startle the woman.

Sam looked up into her friend's eyes, and saw they were filled with concern. Her own bright blue eyes filled with tears, which soon overflowed and trickled down her cheeks.

"Jan, Do you think I _was_…. you know…?" Her breath hitched and she cried harder, fresh tears flowing down her cheeks in tracks. Janet's heart broke and she threw her arms around her distraught friend and held her tightly until the worst of the weeping subsided.

Mentally Doctor Frasier was kicking herself; it was over nine months ago that Sam had been kidnapped by the employees of Adrian Conrad. When she had been rescued it had become fairly obvious that amongst the many tests conducted on her during that week that some internal examinations had taken place. Sam had reacted badly, vomiting and shaking with shock at the idea of even a medical violation of her body. Blood tests showing trace levels of HCG in the Major's blood had indicated a pregnancy had begun but with no signs of life in her womb and with the contraceptives that all female SGC staff took she had explained it away. A 'Phantom pregnancy' she had assured her friend, 'it happens to lots of women', 'nothing to worry about'.

She had failed to recognise the other, far less obvious solution that in fact a pregnancy had occurred and that the embryo had simply been removed.

"What kind of sick people would steal my baby from me?" Sam's voice cut through her thoughts like a knife.

"The NID. You know they are that sick, we've dealt with them for 5 years now."

Doctor Frasier returned to her musing, when a new potentially more devastating thought occurred to her. In her concern first for her friend's health and then latterly for her emotional state, she had failed to appreciate the ramifications of this latest development. She gasped involuntarily, causing Sam's head to snap up and their eyes to lock. Janet coloured slightly.

"So if the Colonel is Hannah's Father and he thinks that an embryo had been stolen from you. Then you and he must have…."

Sam blushed beet red from the roots of her hair to the soles of her feet.

"And that means if anyone gets wind of this then you and he will be….."

"Court marshalled." Sam finished the sentence for her and looked at the floor.

"How did it? I mean when, where?" Janet asked in a stricken voice, mentally torn between joy for the two and fear of the consequences of their actions.

"It was after a mission, one of our many narrow escapes, I had a gash on my leg, and Daniel had that arrow in his shoulder," her voice broke as memories of Daniel's face flooded her mind. Janet nodded recollecting the operation to remove it.

"I just couldn't be alone anymore. I kept seeing his face shouting my name as I was falling in dreams, every time I closed my eyes he was dying again in glorious technicolour."

"Daniel?" Janet asked thoroughly confused.

"No, not then. Daniel hadn't died then." Sam replied pointedly.

"Oh, The colonel? You had nightmares about the colonel dying?"

"Yeah." Sam glanced away and worried her lower lip with her teeth.

"I dream about all of you dying." Janet confessed hoping to reassure Sam.

Carter smiled wryly, " I guess but still you don't respond by driving over to your commanding officer's house in the middle of the night and throw yourself at him."

"Mrs Hammond would sure be surprised." The petite doctor smirked.

"Jan! Don't go there eh? I'm finding it hard to look the General in the eye as it is." Sam grimaced.

"So you just went over and knocked on the door. What did you say?" Janet had abandoned any semblance of a doctor's bedside manner, her role as girl friend to the major usurping her more professional persona.

"I said, 'I can't do this alone tonight' and he pulled me in the door and gathered me up in his arms and just held me there for the longest time, Jan." Sam supplied, a little smile crossing her tired face.

"Well then the next thing, what with the feel of his arms, the smell of his skin, and then he asked if I was ok and I looked into his eyes." Carter turned and grinned at her friend.

"Well that's a cliché." The doctor retorted in a passable impression of the irascible colonel.

"I was sort of immobilised there in his eyes, and then he kissed me."

"And?" The doctor urged.

"One thing led to another." Sam concluded suddenly embarrassed by the turn the conversation had taken.

"Oh no you don't, Samantha Carter! Details, I want lots of details." Janet stated firmly waggling her finger towards her recalcitrant friend.

"Ok, Ok!" Sam gave in gracefully shifting slightly closer towards where the doctor was perched on the edge of the bed.

"I kissed him back, and he just seemed to let go. Next thing I knew I was pressed back against the wall in his hallway and all hell broke loose." Sam grinned as she recalled the experience.

"Sort of like the Neanderthal virus from the land of light?" Janet smirked.

"I guess." Carter blushed again.

"What I want to know Jan, Is why the contraceptives failed." Sam asked suddenly serious once more.

"I've been giving that some thought as well, Sam," Doctor Frasier mused. " On that mission and the one before you had injuries that broke the skin. Alongside the dressings placed upon them you were given some fairly heavy-duty antibiotics. They can counteract the effects of any contraceptives. I guess we didn't issue our normal warning because I didn't think you were in a relationship, at that time."

"I wasn't." Sam replied placing a reassuring hand on her friends arm. " It wasn't your fault Janet you weren't to know."

"I am aware of that Sam, I just don't know what we are going to do about it." Janet brooded her mind veering of into the labyrinths of plan, counter plan, supposition and conjecture so often the process of medical diagnosis.

"So far, only you me and the colonel know about this. Right?" The doctor enquired carefully.

"If you say so." Sam replied with a slight shrug.

"The colonel will back from Thor's ship soon with Hannah and then I suggest you have a long chat. You can stay here and I will send him in to you; there are no cameras in here and between the pair of you a decision must be made based on the information the colonel has. However, bear in mind that the information could be incorrect, Sam an assimilation of facts made to look like a whole they were never intended for." Janet stated reasonably.

"I don't want to talk to him, Janet." Sam stated miserably, " He hates me."

"No he doesn't. He was really upset when you fainted, by now he'll be torturing himself with thoughts of your demise. Worse still he'll think _you_ hate him!"

"Oh God!" Sam sighed heavily, "What a mess."

"Not necessarily," Janet stated quietly.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

He jolted back to reality as the Asgard commander addressed him.

"Colonel O'Neill, the results of the tests we have undertaken have produced some interesting results."

Jack opened his mouth to attempt an explanation but was cut off before he had drawn breath to begin.

"Her 'DNA' as I believe you call it, shows clearly many identifying features of yourself and Major Carter. As to manipulation on a cellular level, I can find no evidence of any intervention either crude or technologically advanced." Thor paused suddenly aware that the human before him was not displaying any of the customary facial expressions he associated with 'surprises'. He wondered if it was just that the man he had begun to consider his friend simply didn't understand though he had long known that O'Neill's intelligence was far above the level he chose to show publicly.

"I do not believe this child has been subjected to any artificial fertilisation techniques, O'Neill."

The colonel winced and looked away embarrassed. He knew that the wily alien could 'fill in the blanks' in this tale with ease.

"No, er I didn't know for sure Thor, so I thought I would wait and see what you came up with." He trailed off as his Asgard friend regarded him with his grey unblinking eyes.

"Perhaps," Thor said with the mere hint of bite in his tone, "If you were to tell me _all_ the details of the discovery of this child I _might_ be able to render assistance more efficiently."

Jack sighed heavily and began to tell him all the events of the preceding days. He halted when he reached the part about his visit with Maybourne.

"He has information about a cache of alien weapons and he wanted to trade it for a presidential pardon. In order to capture my attention he brought information about the 'merchandise' he knew had been traded to Baal." He stated bitterly.

"This information was useless as you already had recovered the child." Thor replied evenly.

"Yes but when the documents the Tok'ra scientist had made were translated one word was rendered 'egg'. As Maybourne explained, the translation was inaccurate referring to 'eggs' only in the sense of a bird's egg. More accurately it should have been translated 'Young'. Like, the offspring of a bird is an egg, rather than in the sense of 'Ovum', being a component part of making a new life.

"I see," Thor said carefully, "So if that is the case why did you simply not explain that before we began?"

"That's a complicated question, Thor." He looked at the alien, who didn't take the hint and simply waited for him continue.

"In our military, men and women who work together are not allowed to…."

"Mate?" Thor supplied helpfully.

"Amongst other things," Jack groaned blushing furiously. "Long term relationships are forbidden and I didn't want it to be true because it would hurt Sam, er Major Carter, enough to lose her career."

"Why would Major Carter's efforts be in jeopardy?" Thor asked deliberately a tiny change in his expression displaying his consternation.

"We will probably both get kicked out of the SGC," O'Neill replied miserably.

"This is not a situation that the Asgard high council would countenance. You are both too valuable to the fight against the goa'uld and the replicators to risk your loss."

"Yeah, well once we report this it will be out of our hands, permanently."

"I was not asked to determine how she occurred, O'Neill. I was asked to determine if she was a viable life form. That is the question I shall address my report to." Thor said seriously his huge eyes boring into Jack's deep brown ones.

"Thank you buddy," He said his face relaxing into his first easy smile since midday.

"As for her subsequent development, she has been aged in three stages by goa'uld nanite technology. From birth to three months immediately, from six months old to three years after three months normal development. She was then allowed to develop normally for a further six months until just five days ago when she was aged again to her current age of approximately five earth years."

"Janet worked that out, she hasn't any adult teeth yet." Jack supplied earning a nod from his Asgard friend.

"Physically she has developed well but emotionally it may take a little while for her to catch up to her intellect and rapid growth."

"That would explain some of the monster tantrums."

"Tantrums?" Thor enquired.

"Lots of screaming and crying, hitting out at things." Jack supplied with a rueful smile.

"Excessive displays of emotion are frequent amongst humans, you merely control them better when you mature." Thor stated kindly, leaving Jack feeling like the only child at a tea party of elderly female relatives. He hated this; being given a pat on the head, like a clever boy.

"Yeah well, she's an expert and it isn't going to continue much longer." He sighed thinking back to his earlier battles with the kid. "Hopefully."

At that very moment there was an ear-splitting scream from the next room and Thor frowned slightly as Jack stood up swiftly to get to his terrified child.

"Good bye O'Neill," he said pleasantly.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Colonel O'Neill," gasped the horrified SF, as he appeared seated on the bed next to his daughter, safely back in iso room three. The scream had died in her throat as she had been engulfed in white light and transported back to the safety of the SGC, and she launched herself at him sobbing out her relief at what she interpreted as her rescue from an alien ship. Phrases of broken goa'uld were flowing incoherently along with her tears into the warmth of his shoulder as she cried away her fear at the thought of losing what she was rapidly beginning to consider as her home.

For his part Jack simply rocked her back and forth silently rubbing her back and gently moving her legs to a more comfortable position for her. Once her tears had quieted down to the odd shuddering breath and deep sighing he spoke to her gently.

"Hey now, everything is ok here, isn't it?" The child stiffened at the sound of his voice and tried to pull back but he kept a firm hold.

"Ok, you're ok. No need to panic. I've got you and we're staying right here." He spoke softly but firmly attempting to hopefully instil confidence in her.

"No." The single word made him smile. That one word in a human tongue filled him with hope for the future.

"We don't say no to grown ups, Hannah." He said with a smile already sliding easily back into the role of 'Daddy'.

Confusion flashed across her features as she tried to understand his words and failed. She crossed her arms still sitting on his lap and pouted as she turned away muttering under her breath.

"Hassac."(Fool/Idiot)

"Hannah," The colonel chided gently, "I know that was rude." He gently placed one finger under her chin and turned it so he could see her face.

"Hannah." He said firmly commanding her full attention. "Naughty."

She scowled fiercely and he smiled indulgently at her as she fought the urge to make another smart remark. Although unable to understand the word she understood the tone of reproach her behaviour had produced.

She sighed heavily and looked away still pouting slightly. He felt a surge of emotion wash over him, and he gathered her protesting into his arms and hugged her tightly. He kissed the top of her head and then turned her so she was facing him and tickled her.

Shock followed swiftly by a tentative smile and a giggle were the initial results of his efforts.

"Oh so you are ticklish." He grinned and tickled her until the giggle erupted into raucous laughter. Jack began to laugh too and deposited her bouncing onto the bed whilst he headed for the box of kids stuff near the door. He turned as the laugh was cut off suddenly to find a forlorn face looking at him sadly.

"I'm only going over here to get you something." Jack said pointing over towards the door. The little face fell further and the bottom lip began to quiver ominously. He crossed back to her in two easy strides and swept her up high in the air prompting a small squeal of surprise.

"Ok lets both go," Jack, said laughing as she clutched wildly at his shirt before settling on his hip, "I see we have some books. Which do you like, munchkin?"

"Book." She said happily pointing at 'one thousand and one words'.

"Ok, words and pictures it is, lets get started." The colonel said winking at his daughter as he headed back towards the bed. He settled back leaning against the headboard and swung her around so that she sat leaning against him; the book opened and she began to recount many of the words she had learned with Jonas, sometimes chatting to him in goa'uld and sometimes pointing to indicate a word she didn't know.

"Dist'ra". (Master) She turned around and patted his face pointing to a picture of a magician in a cape with a pointed goatee beard.

"Magician." Jack stated clearly.

"No. No," she shook her head vehemently. "Tiu. (You) Dist'ra (Master)"

She pointed at his chest to emphasise her words, but when he didn't seem to understand she huffed with frustration. She then pointed to herself and said, "Hannah," before pointing again at the colonel and saying, "Dist'ra."

"Oh I get it," the colonel said as the light suddenly dawned on him. " Daddy."

"Tiu?" (You?)

"Uh Huh, _Daddy_." His eyes filled with tears as he realised the enormity of the moment. This was the first day of the rest of his new life.

Hannah yawned widely and popped her thumb back into her mouth. Jack instinctively pulled it out and said, "You'll make your teeth wonky baby; we don't want icky fingers in there."

She scowled again as she leaned back against him and closed her eyes. He stroked the hair away from her eyes and whispered softly as she turned in towards him.

"Gotta get you a hair cut kiddo. You look like an urchin." The thumb headed for the mouth again but was apprehended en route. Sleepy blue eyes opened slightly and stared sadly at him. He let go of her wrist as he thought 'can't win them all and she is still three, emotionally speaking.' Jack shook his head at his weakness, 'two days and you're a goner, there's no hope for you O'Neill."

He lifted her higher into his arms and rubbed gently up and down her back. Hannah snuggled in closer to him, seeking the warmth of his embrace. The child relaxed and the rhythm of her breathing slowed into a deep sleep. Jack gazed down at her and silently marvelled at how like her mother she was when she slept with the same soft eyelashes and golden hair.

The colonel sighed heavily and gently lifted the sleeping girl and placed her on the bed and covered her with a blanket. Hannah stirred restlessly, her blue eyes fluttered open and she murmured a protest at his departure. He smiled and sat down as though settling in for a long wait, and stroked her hair away from her face. The soothing motion lulled her back to sleep and he soon was able to sneak away.

He motioned the SF to stay where he was, and strode purposely in the direction of the infirmary.

A/N : Review please . I think better within the glow of warm praise !


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer : Haven't had one in a while so….. not mine!

A/N: Ok so you're all spitting feathers and seriously upset. I AM sorry. However I fell over and broke a bone in my hand and pulled all the tendons and ligaments in my thumb when I landed. (Not to mention a monster cheese grater graze right down my leg!). One handed typing is a nightmare so this one comes to you in true sesame street style with the help of my ten year old who has serious typing skills I have discovered. Be patient we are trying …I know very trying!

Chapter 13

Colonel O'Neill walked slowly, down the hallway, deep underground on the medical level of Stargate Command. In his mind he ran over and over the words he wanted; no needed to say to his 2IC. He paused momentarily as he neared his destination and sighing the deep sigh of one resigned to his unpleasant fate he pushed open the swing door of the infirmary ward and sloped in.

It was rare at any time of the day to walk into this section of the base unchallenged, you needed to pass a guard on the door to even gain entry but as the colonel was highly respected and 2IC of the base, that hadn't been a problem.

Once through the doors however you were on different ground, you had entered the domain of the chief medical officer and Jack fully expected to be challenged however innocuously by a member of medical staff soon after he arrived.

Today he had hit the jackpot; Doctor Frasier herself emerged from her office, just at the same moment as he was looking around for a nurse to help him find Carter. He faltered and looked away for a split second before resolutely meeting her stare. Anxiously his deep brown eyes glanced over the smaller woman's face searching her features for a sign that her good opinion remained.

Janet had seen the colonel through the glass in the ward office door and moved out of her seat to go and meet him. He obviously hadn't seen her initially as he gave a tiny start of surprise as she appeared before carefully schooling his features. She looked at him cool and unsmiling, she'd had plenty of practice with this expression with Cassie as her daughter had moved towards her teenage years and Janet's warm brown eyes detected a tiny trace of fear slide over the brown eyes before her and then it was gone.

"Colonel." She stated coldly unwilling to give anything away until she had more fully assessed his state of mind.

"Doctor," the colonel smiled.

"Everything go ok with Thor?" She enquired a frown passing over her face, as he stood motionless in the middle of the entrance. She wondered what could have gone wrong before realising the man was unsure of his welcome.

"Yeah, fine; until Hannah woke up and made her presence felt. We were returned back here shortly after that." Jack grinned ruefully.

Janet smiled and gestured towards her the ward office, "Why don't you come in and tell me what Thor said Sir." As she walked towards the door, she felt rather than heard the release of held breath and when he sat down opposite her he was once again the colonel that she knew.

"He said she had all my best attributes, Jan." The colonel smirked, cocked his head slightly and gave her a boyish grin.

"Poor child!" The doctor sighed momentarily then grimaced slightly and carefully asked, "What about her cellular integrity or her proclivity to DnA degradation?"

"What?"

"Is her body gonna make it to adulthood, colonel?" Janet explained shortly.

The colonel looked uncertainly at the Doctor and she raised her eyebrows, enough to show that his show of stupidity wasn't going to work on her and that she knew he understood. He held her eyes for a few seconds then blushing faintly looked at the floor.

"She's a healthy normal kid Doctor. She won't degrade because she wasn't made in Baal's lab! She was made in my bed." The confession sounded loud to his ears and even as he said them he felt the words seal his court martial papers and bring his long history of disciplinary action to a fairly spectacular close. There was a prolonged and awkward silence during which Jack looked at his hands and attempted to regain control as misery washed over him.

Feeling a warm hand cover his own he jumped slightly and looked up into Janet's warm smiling face.

"I am pleased that you were able to confide the truth in me, Jack."

The Colonel nodded still wholly unable to trust himself to speak.

"And I think you've got some things to say to Sam."

Jack looked with renewed interest at his hands, and nodded miserably.

"What if she doesn't want to listen?" He said quietly, "I've made such a mess of everything."

Janet stood up and moved towards the door, "She will listen, Jack. There's more at risk here than just the two of you now." She raised her eyebrows and gestured towards the door with her head.

"Come on Colonel. I'll show you where I've hidden her."

He smiled and followed her out into the ward and up to a side room. She halted and knocked on the door, "Sam? You awake?"

A disembodied voice answered, "Yes." The Doctor turned and winked at the apprehensive man and pushed open the door.

"Look what I found lurking about out here!"

Jack took a deep breath, pasted a smirk on his face and slid through he doorway, just in time to witness a flurry of facial expressions flow across the Major's face finally settling upon a smooth mask of professional indifference. Armour up, he thought well once more into the breach…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Under the muted lights in isolation room three, Hannah stirred in her sleep. The little girl rolled onto her back kicking off the blankets that had been carefully tucked around her, one arm flung carelessly across her pillow over her head. The bright blue eyes fluttered restlessly before opening suddenly and glanced expectantly around the room before focussing on the figure crouching by the wall adjacent to the bed.

"Daniel!" The little girl exclaimed in surprise before her eyes narrowed dangerously and she glanced apprehensively towards the door.

"Hannah," the man replied his mouth quirking into a lopsided smile.

"Where have you been?" The child hissed irritably in Goa'uld.

"Oh, I've haven't been far away," he replied vaguely.

"You left me alone!" She accused pointing a skinny finger at him viciously, her voice beginning to rise shrilly.

Daniel winced and straightened up folding his arms across his chest. The accusation betrayed much of the little girl's sense of abandonment and it was a sensation he could easily empathise with; she had placed her trust in him and he had let her down.

"I'm sorry." He stated sadly, unable to placate her further and unwilling to make more promises. 'Anyway' he thought to himself she was safe at the SGC and would soon know a family full of love and acceptance, just as in his time there, he had.

His apology took the wind out of her sails, she was still thoroughly unaccustomed to anyone feeling sorry for her never mind speaking the words and it left her feeling uncomfortable and unsettled.

"It's ok," she mumbled feeling a sharp pang of grief that she had made her 'friend' look so sad.

Daniel in turn was bemused by the rapid changes of the child's mercurial moods. His face then broke into a sunny smile as slow recognition dawned upon him.

"You're very like your Daddy," he mused in some surprise, "Considering how like your mommy you look."

"Mommy is the beautiful lady with the sparkly eyes," Hannah reflected seriously. "She likes to read the book with the pictures in it with me."

"That's right," Daniel agreed smiling at this apt description of his friend, "Beautiful like you are!"

"Who do I belong to now?" She enquired turning her intelligent blue eyes upon him. The sudden change of pace disarmed him momentarily.

"You don't belong to anyone."

"What?"

Recognizing the panic in her eyes and the fear in her voice Daniel continued quickly, "Amongst the Tau'ri people do not own one another or consider individuals as property. We do not have slaves."

"Then where will I go if no one will own me here?" She started miserably before raising her huge blue eyes to search Daniel's face.

He in turn searched hers. He could still sense a vestige of insecurity but as she had appeared much more settled and contented before his appearance Daniel had assumed she was adjusting nicely to her new life.

"Do you want to go back?" He asked uncertainly, unwilling to believe that the girl would choose slavery over a childhood loved and cherished by two of his best friends.

"I know I should," She began and then gesturing for him to come closer she whispered, " I would prefer to stay here. But, Daniel, I'm scared the master will come for me."

The child began to sniffle quietly overwhelmed once more by hunger and fatigue.

"He won't find you, you're safe here in the SGC," Daniel stated confidently as he sat down next to her on the bed.

The little girl had drawn her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, burying her face tightly within their embrace. Daniel wanted to comfort her but he knew that initiating further intimacy would surely draw the attention of the others, so he sighed in frustration, torn between his observance of the rules and his protective instincts.

"The one called O'Neill," She suddenly stated jolting him from his thoughts, "I _must _belong to him since the jaffa told me I would bear his name."

"Hmm," Daniel mused carefully not wishing to alarm her. "Yes and no."

"Hannah O'Neill, he named me," she reiterated belligerently.

"Yes that _is_ your name, but it is because that is your family name not because you are _owned_ by them. In a sense you _belong _with them but you are not their possession. You belong to noone but yourself."

Seeing this made no sense to her he tried a new tack. "The ones who guarded you were all Jaffa?"

"Yes," she replied uncertainly.

"But they fought against other Jaffa who were in service to other 'gods'." Daniel continued, feeling pleased as she followed his explanation with a slight nod of her head.

"These jaffa, did they not always live in the stronghold with you?" He enquired mildly.

"No of course not, they went home to their …." She broke off suddenly perplexed by her own though process.

"Did they talk of their homes to you, Hannah?" Daniel asked quietly.

"They often talked of their wives and their sons. The one called Ren'ai who guarded me often said he would not tolerate behaviour like mine of his son." She confessed flushing guiltily.

"I thought that was just how those who were Jaffa lived. The humans had no one they talked of; they were all owned, like me."

"You have a family now," Daniel smiled at the intelligent face before him, "And your Daddy will never leave you alone again; of that you can be certain."

The little girl nodded uncertainly and yawned widely. Daniel suggested she lie down whilst he told her a story.

"Once upon a time in a far away country," He began softly.

"How far away? Was there a chaapa'ai?" Daniel sighed and waited until she settled down again a look of contrite apology on her face that didn't quite reach the mischievous look in her eyes.

"Ahem," he began again, "As I was saying in this far away country there was a tall tower."

"What's a tower?" A small voice interrupted.

"A tall thin building, like a stronghold but skinny and long, there are usually a lot of stairs." Daniel clarified with a smirk until she nodded her understanding and popped her thumb into her mouth.

"In the tower there was a girl with long pale yellow hair, like spun gold."

"Like mine?" She mumbled through the thumb.

"Uh huh."

"Was she pretty?"

"Very," Daniel chuckled then frowned as she began to sit up again, now her interest had been piqued. She relented and lay down again clutching a corner of the hospital sheet, bringing it up to rub on her face as she sucked her thumb.

"Her name was Rapunzel and when she was little her hair grew so long that she could sit on it and she brushed it every day and it grew more beautiful every day until it was very long, indeed." Daniel paused and peered down at the sleeping child.

Slowly his clothes began to glow and he was engulfed in a brilliant white light, one of the tendrils brushed the child's face as the glowing being rose to the ceiling and disappeared.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

General Hammond blinked twice as the Commander of the Asgard fleet materialised in a brilliant flash of white light directly in front of his desk.

"General Hammond," the serious alien began without any preamble causing the slightly flustered officer to lay down his pen and straighten in his chair, "the tests on the child have been satisfactorily concluded."

"Everything was in order, I hope." The General enquired carefully left uncertain by the evidently ambiguous statement.

"Perfectly. She carries the naquadah and the protein marker left by the goa'uld within her mother and her physiology is considerably more advanced than the average human of her generation. This can be safely attributed to the changes the Ancient's depository affected upon Colonel O'Neill's genetic code; she is going to be a considerable addition to the human gene pool."

"However?" Hammond stated after a long pregnant pause where he received the impression that Thor was waiting for him to make a further enquiry.

"There were some anomalies." The Asgard replied in a pleasant tone.

"Anomalies?" He repeated unsure of what Thor meant, "What kind of anomalies?"

"The Asgard high council were unaware of developments in goa'uld technology that would allow them to affect genetic construction without leaving any evidence of their tampering." Thor ventured with some gravity.

"No evidence?" The general mused his eyebrows climbing skyward, his face grimacing into a fearsome scowl as the ramifications of the alien's statement connected.

"However with the war against the replicators taking most of our attention lately it _is _possible that developments _could_ have occurred we were unaware of," the words belied the Asgard's true meaning but the general caught on quickly.

"So there is evidence to support the original explanation then?" Hammond enquired mildly attempting to pitch his reply to avoid the alien misunderstanding him.

"There is no evidence to refute it," Thor replied the ghost of a smile playing on his almost expressionless face.

"The Asgard high council would also like to express its opinion that Colonel O'Neill's continuing participation in the stargate program will remind them of their debt to the planet Earth and encourage the active continuation of their participation in the protected planets treaty. Likewise with Major Carter."

"Thankyou for your help Commander Thor," the general smiled reaching over the desk to shake the alien's hand. Thor merely looked at his hand, which was been shaken, removed it carefully and held up his hand to the startled base commander.

"I am pleased we were able to render you assistance, General Hammond. I will be calling in to see your president, after leaving your facility. I believe he would benefit from hearing of the Asgard's thoughts about how young human growth is optimised."

Without any further conversation the alien departed in a burst of white light. He held up his hand in a fruitless gesture of farewell and then chuckled, "Oh I believe he would. I believe he would," before shaking his head slightly and reaching for his phone.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The door closed after the doctor's departure leaving him stranded part way into the body of the room, silence stretched his nerves to nearly breaking point. Jack stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked expectantly at his 2IC, she in turn resolutely stared at her hands wrung together in her lap. He cleared his throat nervously and began to speak.

"Erm, How are you?" The enquiry sounded lame even to his own ears and he groaned inwardly cursing himself for a yellow coward.

"I'm fine," she began then grimacing at her own cliché, she raised wary eyes to his face and stated more confidently, "It was just a shock. I'm over it now, Sir."

"Ya think?" The colonel quipped skilfully taking in her posture, her pale face and her evasive body language. He realised that for the moment, he needed to take the lead here and he knew he could fill that role in her life confidently.

Jack injected a trace of steel into his tone and began again, " Sam, I know I don't deserve it as your friend but as your superior officer I would appreciate your honesty."

"I'm tired, and more than a little shocked, Sir," She stated formally looking directly into his eyes. The hurt and angry blue pair met the guilt and dismay reflected in the brown ones and her stiff posture melted.

"Will you take a seat?" She asked quietly.

He sat and looked at her then taking one of her cold hands and rubbing it between his own he remarked, "you're cold, do you need a blanket?"

"Got one," she replied replacing it around her shoulders from where it had fallen to pool on the bed behind her.

"I'm sorry." The both blurted out simultaneously.

"You've nothing to be sorry for, Sam," he exclaimed his hand brushing her cheek.

"Whereas I …." Jack tailed off stricken.

"You didn't know," Carter returned immediately anxious to assuage his conscience.

"I shouldn't have confronted you like that, in the hallway. I should have believed in you but all I thought about was how my chance was gone, I never thought to consider it was yours too…it was selfish." Tears formed in the corner of his eyes, he looked over her shoulder and tried to blink them away.

"Jack." The sound of his name was intoxicating coming as it did from her lips and he was momentarily unable to respond as she graced him with an uncertain watery smile.

"Jack, It wasn't your fault." Sam whispered her voice choked with the unshed tears of her loss. He swiftly pulled her into his chest, her face buried in his neck as her body shook with rasping sobs. A tear rolled unchecked down his cheek, as he enveloped her in his arms mutely trying to infuse her with strength and comfort he didn't feel were yet his own as he attempted to rein in his own tumultuous emotions.

"I'm sorry. I'm Sorry, I'm sorry" he whispered repeatedly into her hair whilst he gently rocked her and rubbed soothing circles on her back.

"I love you."

Immediately she drew in a deep shuddering breath and pulled back to gaze expectantly into his eyes. He wiped away tears from her face with the side of his thumb and pulled out a hanky from his pocket.

"C'mon," he said holding it up in front of her, "Blow."

Sam giggled and complied, years of obedience winning out in favour of her pride.

Jack looked at her closely, "Samantha, Do you trust me?"

"Yeah sure ya betcha," she quipped with a giggle. He narrowed his eyes in mock seriousness.

"Major," he drawled.

"Yes, sir," she saluted with a twinkle in her eye.

"Everything is gonna be fine. She is here with us and we are going to be a family together," she began to frown slightly even as he spoke his reassurance.

"Ahh!" He remonstrated holding up one finger to halt her reply, "Do you trust me?"

"Yes Jack," she reiterated rolling her eyes.

"Right then. Think no more about it. Now here's how I think we are going to get her to eat…" The colonel put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in to a hug whilst settling back against the headboard of the bed.

"Oh you heard about that," Sam replied leaning her head against his shoulder, as she stole glances at him out of the corner of her eye she suddenly realised she felt lighter than she had in a long time; there in the safety of his embrace.

"And let me tell you what happened with Thor…."

"Something happened with Thor?"

"Uh huh."

"Something bad?"

"She woke up."

A/N: Now that I know hoe many of you read these chapters I want to know what ALL of you think please! It makes my day when I get nice reviews honest ! Picture me smiling then hit the button !


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